Electronic Flora of South Australia Family Fact Sheet

Tribe SONDERELLEAE L.E. Phillips 2001: 498

Phylum Rhodophyta – Family Rhodomelaceae

Thallus erect, branched from the midrib or margins, branches flat, linear, monostromatic. Apices with an apical cell in a slight cleft, dorsiventral with the axial cells producing 3 or 4 pericentral cells (5 in fertile segments), 2 lateral and 1 or 2 adaxial, with a pseudopericentral cell from each lateral cell; lateral pericentral cells each forming 2 chains of wing cells. Branching adventitious from the midrib or exogenous from the margin. Trichoblasts absent.

Reproduction: Gametophytes dioecious, reproductive cells borne directly on thallus surface. Procarps borne in series on the central adaxial pericentral cells, carposporophyte with terminal carposporangia, cystocarps usually single per blade. Spermatangial blades ovate, with sterile axial and marginal cells.

Stichidia borne on the midrib, linear, compressed, corticated, with 2 rows of tetrasporangia cut off from opposite lateral pericentral cells, with 4 (–6) pre-sporangial cover cells.

The Sonderelleae now includes the monospecific Sonderella and Lembergia; it was presaged by Womersley (1965, p. 449) who showed that Sonderella was more related to the Rhodomelaceae than the Delesseriaceae, probably to the Amansieae, and suggested it should be "placed in a group of its own". The tribe Sonderelleae has been established by L.E. Phillips (2001, p. 498) to include also the New Zealand Lembergia.

The Sonderelleae is distinguished by the apical development with 3–4 (or 5) pericentral cells plus 2 pseudopericentral cells, complete lack of trichoblasts, and formation of sexual reproductive cells directly on the blade surface. The vegetative development and stichidia relate it most closely to the Amansieae.

References:

PHILLIPS, L.E. (2001). Morphology and molecular analysis of the Australasian monotypic genera Lembergia and Sonderella (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta), with a description of the tribe Sonderelleae trib. nov. Phycologia 40, 487–499.

WOMERSLEY, H.B.S. (1965). The morphology and relationships of Sonderella (Rhodophyta, Rhodomelaceae). Aust. J. Bot. 13, 435–450.

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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