Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Griffithsia subcylindrica Okamura 1930: 99, pl. 8.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae – Tribe Griffithsieae

Selected citations: Cribb 1983: 92, pl. 24, fig. 1. Itono 1977: 157. Millar 1990: 441, fig. 50E, F. Tseng 1942: 108, figs 2, 3.

Synonym

Griffithsia binderiana sensu Abbott 1946: 442, pl. IV, figs 1–7. NON Griffithsia binderiana Sonder 1845: 52.

Thallus light red, 1–2 cm high, of lax procumbent filaments and subdichotomous to subsecund erect branches 0.5–1 cm apart. Structure. Cells cylindrical 250–450 µm in diameter and L/D 3–5.5, apical cells obtuse; plants lacking whorls of hair-like synchronic laterals; branching from the distal ends of cells.

Reproduction: Fertile plants unknown for southern Australian plants.

Type from Hatidyo I., Japan (Okamura 1930).

Selected specimens: Williamstown, Vic., 2.5–4 m deep (Kraft K10468 & Saunders, 6.ii.1995; AD, A67855).

Distribution map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of SA

Distribution: Hainan, China; Japan; possibly Hawaii (Abbott 1946, p.442); eastern Australia. In southern Australia, from Williamstown Victoria.

Taxonomic notes: The tangled, creeping filaments and sparse, erect axes give this species a distinctive habit resembling Anotrichium tenue, but it lacks the whorled, hair-like, synchronic laterals towards the filament apices and branches arise from distal ends of cells, not proximal ends as occurs in A. tenue. On the basis of tetrasporangiate plants, Cribb (1983, p. 92) provisionally recorded G. subcylindrica for Coffs Harbour, N.S.W., and the record of this species for Victoria based on sterile material must also be provisional.

Species of uncertain status.

References:

ABBOTT, I.A. (1946). The genus Griffithsia (Rhodophyceae) in Hawaii. Farlowia 2(4), 439–453.

CRIBB, A.B. (1983). Marine algae of the southern Great Barrier Reef-Part 1. Rhodophyta. Aust. Coral Reef Soc.Handbook No. 2.

ITONO, H. (1977). Studies on the Ceramiaceous algae (Rhodophyta) from southern parts of Japan. Bibliotheca Phycologia 35, 1–499.

MILLAR, A.J.K. (1990). Marine red algae of the Coffs Harbour region, northern New South Wales. Aust. Syst. Bot. 3, 293–593.

OKAMURA, K. (1930). On the algae from the Island of Hatidyo. Rec. Océanogr. Works Jap. 2(2), 92–110, Plates 6–10.

SONDER, O.G. (1845). Nova Algarum genera et species, quas in itinere ad oras occidentales Novae Hollandiae, collegit L. Preiss, Ph.Dr. Bot. Zeit. 3, 49–57.

TSENG, C.K. (1942). Marine algae of Hong Kong, II; The genus Catenella. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 32, 142–146.

The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIIC complete list of references.

Author: R. N. Baldock

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 December, 1998)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIIC. Ceramiales – Ceramiaceae, Dasyaceae
©State Herbarium of South Australia, Government of South Australia

Email Contact: State Herbarium of South Australia