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Electronic Flora of South Australia Family Fact Sheet

Tribe MONOSPOREAE Schmitz & Hauptfleisch 1897: 483, 488

Phylum Rhodophyta – Order Ceramiales – Family Ceramiaceae

Thallus erect, uniseriate, ecorticate, subdichotomous or alternately branched radially or distichous, or polychotomous below; attachment by unicellular, simple or lobed rhizoids from lower cells of erect or semiprostrate main axes. Cells multinucleate, apical cells dividing transversely, usually overtopped by lateral filaments.

Reproduction: Asexual propagules ovoid, of 1–3 (–4) cells, sessile or pedicellate, multinucleate, liberated and germinating as a whole.

Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps borne on subapical cells of short axes, with 2 or 3 periaxial cells (one bearing a 4-celled carpogonial branch) and 1 or 2 auxiliary cells, producing 1–3 gonimolobes with all cells becoming carposporangia; fusion cell from the carpogonial branch present or absent. Sterile cells of the procarp usually form an inner involucre after fertilization, and outer involucral branches may arise from 1 or 2 cells just below the procarp (Deucalion and Tanakaella).

Tetrasporophytes with tetrahedrally divided sporangia or polysporangia.

Life history directly from propagules or triphasic with isomorphic gametophytes and tetrasporophytes.

Type genus: Monosporus Solier in Castagne 1845: 242.

Taxonomic notes: The tribe Monosporeae was recognised by Huisman & Gordon-Mills (1994) to include 7 genera, 5 of which are here considered to occur on southern Australian coasts. The other two are Monosporus, based on M. pedicellatus (J.E. Smith)Solier in Castagne (1845, p. 242) which is unknown reproductively apart from monosporangia and uncertain reports of tetrasporangia, and De.sikacharyella Subramanian (1984) from the southern coast of India. The Australian Monosporus australis is here transferred to Mazoyerella (see below).

The genera of the Monosporeae are grouped together by their possession of multinucleate, 1–3 (–4)-celled asexual propagules, similarities in habit with subdichotomous to alternate branching and relatively large multinucleate cells, and similarities in the procarp and post-fertilization structures. Gametophytes are now known in most genera (except Monosporus), sometimes only in culture, and are usually rare. However, propagules are usually present and distinctive for each genus.

References:

HUISMAN, J.M. & GORDON-MILLS, E.M. (1994). A proposal to resurrect the tribe Monosporeae Schmitz et Hauptfleisch, with a description of Tanakaella itonoi sp. nov. (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta) from southern and western Australia. Phycologia 33, 81–90.

SCHMITZ, F. & HAUPTFLEISCH, P. (1897). Ceramiaceae. In Engler, A. & Prantl, K., Die natarlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 481–504. (Leipzig.)

SUBRAMANIAN, B. (1984). The morphology and relationships of Desikacharyella indica gen. et sp. nov. Ceramiaceae (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from the southern east coast of India. Phykos 23, 3–14, 27 Figs.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley

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

KEY TO GENERA OF MONOSPOREAE

1. Propagules unicellular, with a single elongate stalk cell; procarps with 2 periaxial cells; polysporangia with 8 or 16 spores

MAZOYERELLA

1. Propagules uni- to tri-cellular, usually with an elongate, short discoid or 1–2 isodiametric stalk cells; procarps with 3 periaxial cells; tetrasporangia or polysporangia

2

2. Propagules of 2 or 3 cells; polysporangia

3

2. Propagules unicellular and with a small discoid basal cell or with a small basal cell and 2-celled stalk cell, tetrasporangia

4

3. Propagules of 3 subequal cells and with a short stalk cell; carposporophyte with only outer involucral filaments present, from hypogenous and subhypogenous cells

DEUCALION

3. Propagules of 2 subequal cells, on a very short stalk cell; carposporophyte with inner involucral filaments present from the sterile procarp cells

ANISOSCHIZUS

4. Propagules with a single, discoid, basal cell; both inner and outer involucral filaments present

TANAKAELLA

4. Propagules with a small trapeziform basal cell and 2 short stalk cells; inner involucral filaments only present

GUIRYELLA


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