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Rhipiliopsis echinocaulos (Cribb) Farghaly

Reference
Phycologia 25:54, Figs. 12-16 (1986)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Habit and structure. Thallus flabelliform, 6–8 mm tall; blades to 4–6 mm wide. Stalk terete, monosiphonous, to 1200 μm long and 250 μm diam., covered with short simple to multifid spines, dichotomously to tetrachotomously divided at the base of the flabellate blade. Blades with 1 or 2 layers of subparallel slightly sinuous (due to lateral adhesions) cylindrical siphons, these regularly dichotomously divided and strongly equally constricted above the dichotomies, with lower segments 150–200 μm long and 50–80 μm diam., more distal segments elongate, 290–1000 μm long and 20–50 μm diam., with rounded apices. Siphons cohering every 70–200 μm by adjacent lateral papillae, these perpendicular and arising from one or both siphons, forming a ring at their point of contact.

Distribution. Known from tropical Australia, the Seychelles, southern Japan, and possibly China.

Habitat. Epilithic in the subtidal.

[After Huisman & Verbruggen, Algae of Australia: Mar. Benthic Algae of North-western Australia, 1. Green and Brown Algae 142 (2015)]

John Huisman and Cheryl Parker, 3 August 2021

Distribution

Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Broome.