Corynophlaea cystophorae J.Agardh
Acta Universitatis Lundensis. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift. Afdelningen för Mathematik och Naturvete 22, tab. 1 fig. 1 (1882)
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 brown, hemispherical to globose, firm but very mucoid, 2–4(–6) mm across, epiphytic on Cystophora and other algae. Basal layer of appressed radiating filaments on the host, with no or very slight penetration between the outer host cells, cells isodiametric to slightly elongate, 6–8 µm in diameter. Medulla 200–900 µm high, of erect, branched, closely adjacent filaments arising from every cell of the basal layer, cells ovoid to elongate-ovoid to sub-pyriform below, 20–40(–50) µm in diameter, becoming smaller above. Determinate cortical filaments arising in groups of 1–4 from upper medullary cells, 100–500 µm and (8–)15–35(–90) cells long, usually curved above, cells cylindrical below, 6–15 µm in diameter and L/B 3–6, and usually laterally inflated above (globose to often deltoid on their upper side), sometimes remaining cylindrical, (6–)8–15(–20) µm broad or long and L/B 1–1.5(–2). Phaeoplasts several per cell, discoid to elongate or lobed, each usually with a pyrenoid. Phaeophycean hairs frequent, produced from upper medullary cells, 10–15 µm in diameter and greatly exceeding the cortical filaments in length.
Reproduction. Plurilocular sporangia borne on slender branch systems from the upper medullary cells, filiform, uniseriate, simple or once branched, 30–50 µm and 8–25(–36) locu1es long, 5–7 µm in diameter. Unilocular sporangia often on the same thallus as plurilocular sporangia, borne laterally at base of cortical filaments, ovoid, 50–100(–160) µm long, 20–30(–45) µm in diameter.
Distribution. From Rottnest I., W. Aust., around southern Australia and Tas., to Crookhaven Heads, N.S.W.
Habitat. C. cystophorae is common on several species of Cystophora, as well as on a variety of other algae along rough-water to moderately sheltered coasts of southern Australia.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia II: 95–97 (1987)]
