Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Nitophyllum fallax J. Agardh 1898: 48.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Delesseriaceae

Selected citations: De Toni 1900: 638. Kylin 1924: 97. Lucas 1909: 35; 1926: 600, pl. 40 fig. 1. Tisdall 1898: 509. Wilson 1892: 174, nomen nudum.

Thallus (Fig. 56A) erect, medium red-brown, 8–12 cm high, irregularly laterally and complanately branched from the margins, branches (3–) 4–6 mm broad throughout, tapering only slightly above, apices and axils rounded, margins slightly undulate (mainly where sori present). Midrib slight, remaining as a narrower stipe below where wings are lost; veins absent. Holdfast 2–6 mm across, fibrous; epilithic. Structure. Growth marginal (Fig. 56B), without apical cells. Mature cells ovoid in surface view, 8–15 (–20) µm across, irregularly arranged. Blades monostromatic near the margins and 25–35 µm thick, soon tristromatic and 50–60 µm thick, becoming polystromatic centrally, cortical cells equivalent. Cells multinucleate; rhodoplasts discoid.

Reproduction: Gametophytes unknown.

Tetrasporangial sori (Fig. 56C–E) marginal, elongate to lunate, 600–1300 µm long, 300–600 fan broad, and 160–200 µm thick, with tetrasporangia in 2 layers (Fig. 56F), cut off from inner cells of cortical filaments 4–6 cells long and covered by outer cortical cells; tetrasporangia 35–55 µm in diameter.

Type from Port Phillip Heads, Vic. (Wilson); lectotype in Herb. Agardh, LD, 30478.

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

Distribution: Only known from the type and from 1.3 km off Cape Northumberland, S. Aust., 15 m deep (Shepherd, 7.vii.1977; AD, A48136 and 1.ii.1978; AD, A55030). Port Phillip Hds, Vic. (Wilson, 26.i.1886; MEL, 691948-appears sterile).

References:

AGARDH, J.G. (1898). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 3, Part 3 - De dispositione Delesseriearum. (Gleerup: Lund.)

DE TONI, G.B. (1900). Sylloge Algarum omnium hucusque Cognitarum. Vol. 4. Florideae. Sect. 2. pp. 387–776. (Padua.)

KYLIN, H. (1924). Studien über die Delesseriaceen. Lunds Univ. Årsskr. N.F. Avd. 2, 20(6), 1–111.

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1909). Revised list of the Fucoideae and Florideae of Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 34, 9–60.

LUCAS, A.H.S. (1926). Notes on Australian marine algae. III. The Australian species of the genus Nitophyllum. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 51, 594–607, Plates 37–45.

TISDALL, H.T. (1898). The algae of Victoria. Rep. 7^th Meet. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sci., Sydney, 1898, pp. 493–516.

WILSON, J.B. (1892). Catalogue of algae collected at or near Port Phillip Heads and Western Port. Proc. R. Soc. Viet. 4, 157–190.

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

Author: H. B. S. Womersley

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.

Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 2003: FIG. 56.

Figure 56   enlarge

Fig. 56. Nitophyllum fallax (AD, A48136). A. Habit. B. Marginal apex of branch. C. Branch with marginal tetrasporangial sori. D. Tetrasporangial sori. E. Tetrasporangial sorus. F. Transverse section of tetrasporangial sorus and monostromatic blade.

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