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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet
Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Amansieae
Thallus foliose, simple or branched from margins, surface or midrib, blades 1–20 cm broad, ovate to linear, apices rounded, apical cells conical, thick-walled, sunk within a distinct apical cleft. Axial cells cutting off 5 pericentral cells (pseudopericentral cells largely absent), 2 lateral ones on each side and a ventral pericentral cell, the lateral cells forming the 2–3-cell thick medulla of the wings, with a small-celled cortex 1–2 cells thick. Axial cells forming a clear midrib in most species, blade surfaces showing rhombic areolation due to regularly arranged medullary cells overlain by cortical cells, this appearance sometimes obscured on older parts. Trichoblasts present from surface cells or projections in some species.
Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps borne on reduced trichoblasts, rapidly polysiphonous, in scattered clusters on blade surface or margin, with a supporting cell bearing a 4-celled carpogonial branch and a lateral and a basal sterile cell group. Carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast bearing clavate terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps ovoid, stalked, pericarp ostiolate and corticated (5–10 cells thick). Spermatangial organs on branches of trichoblasts, ovoid to elongate, in scattered clusters on blades.
Tetrasporangial stichidia on margin or surface of blade, single or clustered, ovoid to elongate-cylindrical, slightly compressed, each segment producing two opposite tetrasporangia, corticated and probably with cover cells.
Type species: L. spectabilis Sonder 1845: 54.
Taxonomic notes: A genus of 5 species, all mainly confined to southern Australia (see Phillips 2002a).
References:
PHILLIPS, L.E. (2002a). Taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of the red algal genus Lenormandia (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales). J. Phycol. 38, 184–208.
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.
The Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia Part IIID complete list of references.
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.
KEY TO SPECIES OF LENORMANDIA
1. Thallus without lateral branches, ovate, usually | L. latifolia |
1. Thallus branched from the margins, surface or midrib, branches mostly | 2 |
2. Primary and secondary branches mostly | 3 |
2. Primary and secondary branches mostly | 4 |
3. Branches arising from face of blades between the slight midrib and the margin, or on the margin, with only a short, basally constricted, stipe; midrib only slightly thickened | L. spectabilis |
3. Branches confined to the prominent midrib, with stipes | L. muelleri |
4. Branches and reproductive organs mostly marginal; marginal dentations present near apices | L. marginata |
4. Branches and reproductive organs arising from surface of blades; margin entire | L. pardalis |
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