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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus BRONGNIARTELLA Bory de St-Vincent 1822: 516.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Lophothalieae

Thallus erect from short prostrate axes, much branched irregularly, with 7 pericentral cells, ecorticate, each segment bearing a branched trichoblast; adventitious filaments absent; attachment by unicellular rhizoids. Structure monopodial, developing trichoblasts close to apices on a 1/7 spiral and pericentral cells in alternating sequence; trichoblasts rhodoplastic, basally branched. Cells multinucleate.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps borne on the second segment of trichoblasts which becomes polysiphonous, the last formed pericentral (supporting) cell bearing a first sterile cell group, the 4-celled carpogonial branch (with the basal cell dividing laterally), and a second sterile cell. Carposporophyte with a basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast with terminal carposporangia, replaced from below. Cystocarps ovoid to urceolate, ostiolate, with the pericarp arising before fertilisation and becoming 2 cells thick with outer, isodiametric, cells on the erect filaments. Spermatangial organs ovoid, borne laterally on trichoblasts, with a sterile basal cell but no sterile apical cells.

Tetrasporangia in lesser branches or branch systems bearing trichoblasts, spirally arranged and one per segment, with 2 pre-sporangial cover cells, subspherical and tetrahedrally divided.

Type species: B. elegans Bory de St-Vincent (1822: 516) [= B. byssoides (Goodenough & Woodward) Schmitz 1893: 217.]

Taxonomic notes: A genus of 2 species, the type and B. australis from Australasia, described in detail by Parsons (1980).

References:

BORY DE ST-VINCENT, J.B.G.M. (1822). Dict. Class. d'Hist. Nat. Vol. 2. (Paris.)

PARSONS, M.J. (1980). The morphology and taxonomy of Brongniartella Bory sensu Kylin (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta). Phycologia 19, 273–295.

SCHMITZ, F. (1893). Die gattung Lophothalia, J. Ag. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 11, 212–232.

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

Author: H.B.S. Womersley & M.J. Parsons

Publication: Womersley, H.B.S. (24 February, 2003)
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia
Rhodophyta. Part IIID. Ceramiales – Delesseriaceae, Sarcomeniaceae, Rhodomelaceae
Reproduced with permission from The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIID 2003, by H.B.S. Womersley. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia.


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