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Distribution
Tropical oceans.
Fijian Records
New record for Fiji (but see note above).
Rotuman Distribution
Lopta (L21/ USP 349).
A. D. R. N'Yeurt
Habitat and Remarks
Growing as extensive mats on the outer reef crest in very exposed locations (e.g. Lopta
reef). Often the dominant cover, it is not uncommon to find this species competing for space
with (and sometimes overgrowing) other reef-crest algae such as Turbinaria ornata (one
small Turbinaria plant was totally engulfed by the Hypnea thallus). The Rotuman plants
closely resemble H. nidulans Setchell as described by Tanaka (1941: 246).
Solieriaceae
Meristotheca J. Agardh 1872
Meristotheca procumbens P. Gabrielson et Kraft 1984: 241, fig. 14A-D (type locality:
Lord Howe Island, Australia); Millar and Kraft 1993: 26; N'Yeurt 1995: 243, figs 3-10.
(Figs 137,142-147,203-205)
Plants deep pink and turgid when fresh, procumbent, up to 10 cm in diameter, irregularly
branched and lobed. Thalli attached at various points to supporting coral via terete haptera up
to 2 mm long. Fronds up to 800 pm in thickness, composed of an inner medulla of
predominantly rhizoidal filaments (40% of thallus) surrounded on both sides by equal
thicknesses of a cortex grading from large unpigmented stellate-ovate cells up to 95 pm in
diameter to a surface layer of small pigmented rectangular cortical cells up to 10 X 20 km.
Cystocarps and tetrasporangia absent from Rotuman specimens collected by the author in
May, June and December, January, although described by Gabrielson and Kraft (1984: 245)
from Lord Howe specimens.
Distribution
Fiji, Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia.
Fijian Records
New published record for Fiji. In Herb. Bishop Museum, Hawaii (BISH 536995; 537010).
Rotuman Distribution
Fapufa (F3/ USP 41 1); Hapmafau; Losa; Savlei; Tua'koi (T61 USP 351). Common on the
north-west and south coasts.
Habitat and Remarks
Growing at the base of Acropora coral debris in shallow lagoonal waters or tide pools.
This alga is edible, being commonly collected by Rotumans to be made into a kind of gel
pudding ('Lum mie'ta') (N'Yeurt 1995). The fresh alga is soaked in seawater, cleaned of
coral debris, and boiled in coconut cream, then garnished with onions and fish. (Fig. 205).
Specimens of this genus (identified as Meristotheca sp.) were located by the author in the
collections of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum Herbarium in Hawaii, having been collected in
October 1975 and August 1977 from Rotuma and identified by W.E. Booth. These