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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Nitophyllum pulchellum Harvey 1855a: 549; 1863, synop.: xxxii.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Delesseriaceae

Selected citations: J. Agardh 1872: 48; 1876: 447; 1898: 38. DeToni 1900: 627. Huisman & Walker 1990: 431. Kylin 1924: 96. Lucas 1909: 35; 1926: 596, pl. 37 fig. 2 (excluding cystocarps). May 1965: 402. Sonder 1880: 23. Wilson 1892: 175.

Synonyms

Scutarius puichellus (Harvey) Kuntze 1891: 920.

Myriogramme pulchella (Harvey) Millar 1990: 462. Silva et al. 1996: 462. [NON cystocarpic Victorian specimens cited by Millar.]

Aglaophyllum pulchellum (Harvey) Kützing 1869: 2, p1. 5a, b.

Thallus (Fig. 57A) medium red, tufted, 3–5 cm high, subdichotomously and complanately branched with branches of even width, 3--6 mm broad, 2–5 mm apart, with strongly crispate to convolute margins, axils rounded; veins absent. Holdfast probably discoid; epiphytic. Structure. Growth marginal (Fig. 57C) without apical cells; mature cells (Fig. 57B) angular in surface view, isodiametric to slightly elongate, 35–55 µm across, often in transverse rows. Blades mostly tristromatic, polystromatic basally, cortical cells equivalent (Fig. 57E). Cells multinucleate; rhodoplasts discoid.

Reproduction: Gametophytes unknown.

Tetrasporangial sori (Fig. 57D, E) scattered, rounded, 0.5–1.5 mm across, with tetrasporangia subspherical to ovoid, 50–90 µm across.

Lectotype from King George Sound, W. Aust. (Harvey); in TCD (Harvey, Trav. Set 60); isolectotypes Alg. Aust. Exsicc. 295B, in TCD, MEL, 584158, NSW, 8645, 8646 and AD, A18302.

Selected specimens: King George Sound, W. Aust., (Harvey) and Ocean Reef Marina, Perth, W. Aust., 6 m deep (O'Brien & Millar, 9.xii.1980; AD, A68279 and in MELU).


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

Distribution: King George Sound and Rottnest I., W. Aust. (Harvey).

Taxonomic notes: The above description is based on Harvey's type specimens from King George Sound, W. Aust. and on AD, A68279, which is probably N. pulchellum. The species is otherwise little known, but in form is similar to Haraldiophyllum nottii from SE Australia, which differs in having entire, straight, margins in contrast to the strongly crispate margins of N. pulchellum. Further collections and study of N. pulchellum are clearly desirable to place it generically.

Millar (1990, p. 422) referred N. pulchellum to Myriogramme, on the basis of a cystocarpic specimen of Wilson in MEL (676687) from Port Phillip Heads, Vic., 10.i.1894. This specimen, however, has crenulate apices and margins and carposporophytes typical of Platyclinia; while slightly different in habit, it is now placed under Platyclinia crenulata Womersley.

References:

AGARDH, J.G. (1872). Bidrag till Florideernes Systematik. Acta Univ. Lund 8, 1–60.

AGARDH, J.G. (1876). Species Genera et Ordines Algarum. Vol. 3, Part 1 - Epicrisis systematis Floridearum, pp. i-vii, 1–724. (Weigel: Leipzig.)

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

HARVEY, W.H. (1855a). Some account of the marine botany of the colony of Western Australia. Trans. R. Jr. Acad. 22, 525–566.

HARVEY, W.H. (1863). Phycologia Australica. Vol. 5, Plates 241–300, synop., pp. i-lxxiii. (Reeve: London.)

HUISMAN, J.M. & WALKER, D.I. (1990). A catalogue of the marine plants of Rottnest Island, Western Australia, with notes on their distribution and biogeography. Kingia 1, 349–459.

KÜTZING, F.T. (1869). Tabulae Phycologicae. Vol. 19. (Nordhausen.)

KUNTZE, O. (1891). Revisio generum Plantarum. Part II. 4. Algae, pp. 877–930. (Leipzig.)

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.

MAY, V. (1965). A census and key to the species of Rhodophyceae (red algae) recorded from Australia. Contr. N.S. W. Natl Herb. 3, 349–429.

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

SILVA, P.C., BASSON, P.W. & MOE, R.L. (1996). Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian Ocean. (Univ. California Press: Berkeley.)

SONDER, O.W. (1880). In Mueller, F., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Supplementum ad volumen undecinum: Algae Australianae hactenus cognitae, pp. 1–42, 105–107. (Melbourne.)

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. 57.

Figure 57 image

Figure 57   enlarge

Fig. 57. Nitophyllum puichellum (A, B, AD, A18302, isolectotype; C–E, AD, A68279). A. Habit. B. Surface view of blade. C. Apex and margin of blade. D. Tetrasporangial sori. E. Transverse section of blade and tetrasporangial sorus.


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