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Caulerpa cupressoides var. elegans (P.Crouan & H.Crouan) Børgesen

Reference
Kongel.Danske Vidensk.Selsk.Skr., Naturvidensk.Math.Afd. 4:376 (1907)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus dark olive-green, spreading laterally to 25 cm, with smooth green to straw-coloured stolons 1–2 mm diam., attached to the substratum by pillars bearing dense rhizoids. Rachis simple or 1–4 times branched, terete but often compressed or flattened, to 8 cm tall, 1.0–1.5 mm diam., bearing mostly distichous, opposite or alternate ramuli, regularly spaced. Ramuli terete, 4–5 mm long, c. 1 mm wide, with spinous apices. Basal portions of assimilators (and occasionally elsewhere) with ramuli in several ranks.

Distribution. Known from the Caribbean Sea, Indonesia, New Guinea, Queensland, Lord Howe Island, northern W.A.

Habitat. In northern W.A. it grows in sand in the shallow subtidal.

[After Belton, Huisman & Gurgel, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 85 (2015)]

John Huisman and Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

IMCRA Regions
Kimberley, Pilbara (nearshore), Pilbara (offshore).
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Karratha, Wyndham-East Kimberley.