Chaetomorpha valida (Hook.f. & Harv.) 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 dark green, loose-lying and forming entangled masses to 15 cm across and 1–5 cm thick, of curved, often crisped, rigid filaments, in the uppermost sublittoral of sheltered habitats. Filaments without attachment cells and of similar diameter throughout. Cells (300–)350–400 µm in diameter and L/B (1.5–)2–3(–4), not or slightly incised at the cross walls; lateral walls 30–60 µm thick, cross walls 8–15 µm thick; chloroplasts densely reticulate to discoid and closely aggregated, with numerous pyrenoids; nuclei numerous.
Reproduction. Unknown.
Distribution. From Venus Bay, S. Aust., to Port Phillip, Vic., and Port Arthur, Tas.
Habitat. C. valida usually grows on tidal flats in sheltered localities.
[after Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia I: 178 (1984)]
