Polycerea zostericola (Kütz.) Kylin
Acta Universitatis Lundensis. Nova Series. Lunds Universitets Arsskrift. Ny Foljd. Andra Afdelningen 37 (1940)
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 brown, mucoid, relatively soft, much branched with frequent short laterals, cylindrical, 2–20 cm long and 1–2 mm in diameter, epiphytic on Posidonia australis, P. sinuosa and Amphibolis antarctica. Medulla multiaxial, becoming hollow, of parallel, cylindrical, longitudinal filaments 20–40 µm in diameter with cells L/B 3–8, slenderer at the periphery, with only slight development of hyphae. Subcortex slight, usually of 1(–2) cells each 10–16 µm in diameter and L/B (1–)1.5–3. Cortical filaments arising in small groups from subcortical cells, forming a moderately dense layer with slightly curved filaments 100–160 µm and 8–13 cells long, lower cells 6–10 µm in diameter and L/B 1.5–3, with the upper 3–4 cells larger, subspherical, increasing in diameter upwards, with subterminal cells l2–20 µm in diameter and the terminal cell subglobose to slightly ovoid, 22–32 µm in diameter, and 1.5–2 times the diameter of the subterminal cell. Phaeoplasts several per cell, discoid, probably each with a pyrenoid; physodes sparse. Phaeophycean hairs frequent, arising from outer subcortical cells, 8–16(–18) µm in diameter.
Reproduction. Plurilocular sporangia borne on pedicels of 4–6 cells from the subcortical cells, usually once or twice furcate or branched, with the arms tapering or lanceolate, multiseriate, 30–60 µm long and 12–16 µm in diameter. Unilocular sporangia borne on basal cells of cortical filaments or on upper subcortical cells, sessile, ovoid, 35–60 µm long and 25–40 µm in diameter.
Distribution. From Jurien Bay to Esperance, W. Aust., as a summer annual.
[After Womersley, Mar. Benthic Fl. Southern Australia II: 126–127 (1987)]
