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Herposiphoniaparca Setchell (sensu Tsuda 1991: 54, Price and Scott 1992: 177).
(Figs 200, 206)
Plants purplish-red, with main prostrate axis to 120 pm in diameter, and up to 12
pericentral cells. Lateral indeterminate branches arising from every 4th segment, with
determinate erect branchlets arising in alternate, contiguous series of 3 from the branch
primordia. Erect branches 250-560 pm long, composed of 5-9 segments and possessing 4-5
apical trichoblasts up to 15 pm in diameter and 260 pm long. Rhizoidal holdfasts at every
node of the prostrate axis, to 36 pm long and 47 pm in diameter, being terminated by a
concave disc-like adhering structure up to 11 8 pm in diameter.
Distribution
Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, northern Australia, Vietnam,
Ceylon, Florida, Maldives, Tanzania.
Fijian Records
Garbary et al. 1991: 255; South 1991: 9; South and Kasahara 1992: 65.
Rotuman Distribution
Hapmafau (*HAP291 USP S6: 16).
Habitat and Remarks
Epiphytic on Dictyota friabilis in sheltered tide pools; also occurs amongst Valonia
aegagropila mats on exposed beach rocks (e.g. at Hapmafau).
Luurenciu Lamouroux 18 13: 42
Key to the Rotuman Species of Laurencia
1. Plants erect ...................................................... L. venusta
1: Plantsrepent ........................................................ L.sp.
Luurencia venusta Yamada 1931b: 203, fig. H, pl. 6, fig. A (syntype localities: Koshikijima
(Kagoshima Prefecture) and Goto (Nagasaki Prefecture), Japan); Saito 1967: 14, pls V
and VI; text figs 8-14; Jaasund 1970a: 62, fig. 1B; 1976: 141, fig. 284; Cribb 1983: 126,
pl. 36, fig. 3; Lewis 1984: 61; Lewis and Norris 1987: 23; Silva et al. 1987: 68; Millar and
Kraft 1993: 55.
(Figs 132, 135, 187)
Fronds purplish-red, erect, up to 6 cm high; cartilaginous, somewhat rigid. Older fronds
naked below and often encrusted with coralline algae; above cylindrical with percurrent main
axes up to 1 mm in diameter beset with alternate, opposite or verticillate branchlets up to 900
pm in diameter. Ultimate branchlets constricted at the base, terminated by a tuft of
trichoblasts in sunken apex. Cortical cells 20-30 pm in diameter, subspherical to obovoid in
surface view, with lateral pit-connections. Medullary cells up to 88 pm in diameter, with
abundant lenticular thickenings of the medullary cell walls, a diagnostic feature of this
species. Plants sterile.
Distribution
Fiji, Australia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, southwest Africa.
Fijian Record
New record for Fiji.