Chaetomorpha aerea (Dillwyn) Kütz.
Species algarum 379 (1849)
Conservation Code:
Not threatened
Naturalised Status: Native to Western Australia
Name Status:
Current
Scientific Description
John Huisman & Cheryl Parker,
Monday 20 June 2011
Habit and structure. Thallus medium to dark green, erect, epilithic (or epiphytic on Posidonia), with numerous closely associated, unbranched filaments, each attached by an elongate basal cell 100–900 µm long with a lobed base and descending rhizoids. Filaments increasing in diameter upwards. Cells 100–150 µm in diameter and L/B 1–2(–3) near the base, usually 200–250 µm in diameter and L/B (0.5–)1–1.5(–3) in upper parts and in long and well developed filaments 500–600(–700) µm in diameter and L/B 0.5–1(–2); filaments slightly to markedly constricted at cross walls; cell length noticeably dependent on time since cell division; wall 2–4 µm thick; chloroplasts densely reticulate with numerous pyrenoids.
Reproduction. Biflagellate and quadriflagellate zooids observed in Australian plants.
Distribution. Cosmopolitan. In Australia, from North Beach, Perth, W. Aust., (and probably further north) around southern Australia and Tas., to Qld.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia I: 172–174 (1984)]
