| Diagnosis |
Thalli reddish brown to purple in colour, erect, loosely branched, attached to shells and debris by a very small discoid holdfast. Branches 0.8 to 1.9 mm in diameter, terete throughout, slender, gradually tapering towards filiform apices, distinctly constricted at the base; soft and easily broken when fresh. Cortex composed of 1 or 2 layers of spherical to cuboidal cells, 9x4.75 to 13x8.25 μm in size. Medullary cells large, 52 to 746 μm in diameter; cell walls 3 to 4.5 μm thick; cell size transition from medulla to cortex abrupt. Cystocarps semi-globose, unconstricted at the base and distributed on more mature branches, 0.8 to 0.9 mm in diameter. Pericarp consisting of 6 to 10 layers of cells, 103 to 188 μm thick; outermost cells round to oval and anticlinally arranged, inner layers periclinally arranged, becoming flattened towards the gonimoblast. Nutritive filaments abundant between pericarp and gonimoblast. Carpospores 15 to 20 μm in diameter, gonimoblast centre composed of few large parenchyma cells. Spermatangial cavities oval, cup-shaped to deep oval (verrucosa type) and 36.5 to 104 μm deep. Tetraspores prominent, sometimes protruding from the cortex, 26.26x18 to 39.25x31.75 μm in size. Thalli up to 54 cm in length (Ref. 80758). |