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Electronic Flora of South Australia Genus Fact Sheet

Genus OPHIDOCLADUS Falkenberg in Schmitz & Falkenberg 1897: 461.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polyzonieae

Thallus of prostrate, polysiphonous, ecorticate, indeterminate axes with upwardly curved apices, bearing irregularly erect, simple or branched, determinate laterals usually bearing trichoblasts; attachment of indeterminate axes by unicellular rhizoids; epilithic. Structure. Apices of indeterminate axes dorsiventral, filaments with 12–22 pericentral cells, lateral branches arising endogenously. Rhizoids cut off from pericentral cells, with digitate haptera.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious. Procarps developing on a lower cell of trichoblasts; carposporophytes with a basal fusion cell and branched gonimoblast with clavate terminal carposporangia. Cystocarps ovoid, sessile on determinate laterals, pericarp ecorticate. Spermatangial organs borne on trichoblasts.

Tetrasporangia borne in upper determinate branches, two per segment and forming two longitudinal rows.

Type species: 0. simpliciusculus (Crouan & Crouan) Falkenberg in Schmitz & Falkenberg 1897: 461.

Taxonomic notes: Ophidocladus probably includes only a single species according to Saenger (1971), distinguished from Lophosiphonia by bearing two tetrasporangia per segment.

References:

SAENGER, P. (1971). On the occurrence of Ophidocladus (Rhodomelaceae) in southern Africa. J. S. Afr. Bot. 37, 291–304.

SCHMITZ, F. & FALKENBERG, P. (1897). Rhodomelaceae. In Engler, A. & Prantl, K., Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien. T.1. Abt. 2, pp. 421–480. (Englemann: Leipzig.)

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.


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