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Electronic Flora of South Australia Species Fact Sheet

Polysiphonia teges Womersley 1979: 494, fig. 10A–C.

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae – Tribe Polysiphonieae

Selected citations: Beanland & Woelkerling 1982: 99.

Thallus (Fig. 86A) dark brown-red, 1–2 cm high, forming dense mats on rock near low tide level, with prostrate filaments producing erect branches bearing several laterals. Attachment by rhizoids from prostrate filaments; epilithic. Structure. Prostrate filaments (Fig. 86B) 70–100 (–125) µm in diameter with segments L/D 0.5–1, with rhizoids 25–50 µm thick and in open connection with the pericentral cells; apices straight to curved, tapering fairly abruptly to the apical cell and with only occasional trichoblasts. Erect branches arising endogenously at irregular intervals, 60–120 µm in diameter with segments L/D 0.5–1 (–1.5), bearing a few lateral branches of similar diameter, tapering to 50–70 µm near the apices with segments L/D 0.3–0.8, with fairly prominent trichoblasts on actively growing apices; lateral branches probably arising independently of trichoblasts and cicatrigenously. Pericentral cells 6, ecorticate; scar cells absent on prostrate filaments, occasional only on erect branches, with trichoblasts 1–4 times furcate and usually several segments apart on actively growing apices. Rhodoplasts discoid, densely scattered.

Reproduction: Sexual reproduction unknown.

Tetrasporangia (Fig. 86C) scattered or in fairly long spiral series with a divergence of about 1/4 in erect branches, slightly distorting the segments, subspherical to ovoid, 50–65 µm in diameter.

Type from Frenchmans Bay, Albany, W. Aust., uppermost sublittoral on sand-covered rock (Woelkerling, 2.ii.1978); holotype in AD, A49279.


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

Distribution: Only known from the type and from Mangrove Point, N Spencer Gulf, S. Aust., uppermost sublittoral (Womersley, 31.xii.1950; AD, A13678).

Taxonomic notes: P. teges is superficially very similar to P. scopulorum in habit, rhizoids, trichoblasts and tetrasporangia, but differs in having 6 pericentral cells throughout instead of 4 as in P. scopulorum.

References:

BEANLAND, W.R. & WOELKERLING, W.J. (1982). Studies on Australian mangrove algae: IT. Composition and geographical distribution of communities in Spencer Gulf, South Australia. Proc. R. Soc. Vict. 94, 89–106.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1979). Southern Australian species of Polysiphonia Greville (Rhodophyta). Aust. J. Bot. 27, 459–528.

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.


Illustration in Womersley Part IIIA, 2003: FIG. 86 A–C.

Figure 86 image

Figure 86   enlarge

Fig. 86. A–C. Polysiphonia teges (AD, A49279). A. Habit. B. Prostrate axes with erect branches. C. Tetrasporangial branches. D–G. Polysiphonia forfex (D, MEL, 1006731, Alg. Aust. Exsicc. 171A; E–G, AD, A50697). D. Habit. E. Branches with cystocarps. F. Branch with spermatangial organs. G. Tetrasporangial branches. (A–D as in Womersley 1979, courtesy of Aust. J. Bot.)


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