Kallymenia cribrogloea Womersley & R.E.Norris
Australian Journal of Botany. Supplementary Series 7, -9, Figs 6-12, 78-80 (1971)
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 rose-red to red-brown or yellowish-brown, foliose, expanded laterally from a short stipe, undivided or somewhat lobed above, 10–50 cm high and across, with small perforations near the margin and large and small ones irregularly scattered over most of the thallus; larger perforations to 1(–2) cm in diameter, smaller usually 1–2 mm in diameter; substance gelatinous, firm when fresh. Holdfast discoid, 1–3 mm across; epilithic or on shells. Structure. Thallus mostly 250–700 µm thick, consisting of 2–4 layers of cortical cells and a central medulla of lightly staining stellate cells with loosely arranged filaments, 4–10(–14) µm in diameter and often irregularly swollen; outer cortical cells 5–9(–12) µm across in surface view, isodiametric to elongate and usually angular, usually separated by as much as or more than their diameter; stellate cells subspherical, 50–100 µm across with several radiating arms which often become long and slender.
Reproduction. Sexual thalli dioecious. Carpogonial branch systems polycarpogonial with 8–16 carpogonial branches, the first cells of which (and the supporting cell) are spherical to ovoid. Fusion cell lobed; 100–180 µm across, producing numerous connecting filaments. Auxiliary cell systems 40–50 µm across with about 8 subsidiary cells on the supporting cell, some subsidiary cells occasionally producing a daughter cell; following fusion of the auxiliary cell with a connecting filament the adjacent parts of the connecting filament produce numerous gonimoblast filaments which cut off carposporangia. Cystocarps scattered over the thallus, convex to hemispherical, 0.5–1 mm across in surface view, circular to somewhat irregular in outline, lying within the swollen medulla and consisting of a dense mass of filaments and subspherical carposporangia 14–30 µm in diameter. Male thalli with spermatangia covering the surface, about 2 µm in diameter, cut off from the outer cortical cells. Tetrasporangia scattered in the outer cortex, cruciately divided, ovoid, 22–36 µm long and 17–25 µm in diameter.
Distribution. Waldegrave I., S. Aust., to Jervis Bay, N.S.W., and SE Tas.
Habitat. K. cribrogloea is a deep water species, 7–40 m deep.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia IIIA: 232–235 (1994)]
