Phymatolithon

Phymatolithon is a genus of non geniculate coralline red algae, known from the UK,[3] and Australia.[4] It is encrusting, flat, and unbranched; it has tetrasporangia and bisporangia borne in multiporate conceptacles.[3] Some of its cells bear small holes in the middle; this distinctive thallus texture is termed a "Leptophytum-type" thallus surface, and has been posited as a taxonomically informative character.[3] It periodically sloughs off its epithallus, reducing its overgrowth by algae by as much as 50% compared to bare rock.[5]

Phymatolithon
Scientific classification
(unranked): Archaeplastida
Division: Rhodophyta
Class: Florideophyceae
Order: Corallinales
Family: Hapalidiaceae
Subfamily: Melobesioideae
Genus: Phymatolithon
Foslie, 1898
Species
At least 11, including
  • P. bornetii
  • P. elatum Chamberlain, 1990
  • P. laeve
  • P. calcareum
Synonyms

References
  1. Woelkerling, W. J.; Furnari, G.; Cormaci, M. (2002). "Leptophytum (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta): to be or not to be?—That is the question, but what is the answer?". Australian Systematic Botany. 15 (5): 597. doi:10.1071/SB02002.
  2. Original description: Adey, W. H. (1966). "The genera Lithothamnium, Leptophytum (nov. gen.) and Phymatolithon in the Gulf of Maine". Hydrobiologia. 28 (3–4): 321–370. doi:10.1007/BF00130389.
  3. Chamberlain, Y. M. (1990). "The genus Leptophytum (Rhodophyta, Corallinaceae) in the British Isles with descriptions of Leptophytum bornetii, L. elatum sp. nov. and L. laeve". European Journal of Phycology. 25 (2): 179–199. doi:10.1080/00071619000650171.
  4. Wilks, K.; Woelkerling, W. (1994). "An account of southern Australian species of Phymatolithon (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta) with comments on Leptophytum". Australian Systematic Botany. 7 (3): 183. doi:10.1071/SB9940183.
  5. Johnson, C.; Mann, K. (1986). "The crustose coralline alga, Phymatolithon Foslie, inhibits the overgrowth of seaweeds without relying on herbivores" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 96 (2): 127. doi:10.1016/0022-0981(86)90238-8.


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