|
Description: |
Thallus encrusting or warty, 0.3–30 mm thick, epilithic and affixed by cell adhesion or growing unattached as rhodoliths. Structure pseudoparenchymatous; organisation dorsiventral; construction monomerous, consisting of a single system of branched filaments that collectively contribute to a ventrally situated core, and a peripheral region where portions of core filaments or their derivatives curve outwards towards the thallus surface, each filament composed of cells 5–16 µm in diameter and 5–35 µm long; a single epithallial cell terminating filaments at the thallus surface, distal walls rounded or flattened but not flared; cells of adjacent filaments joined by cell-fusions, secondary pit-connections absent; trichocytes occurring present at thallus surface, arranged in horizontal fields or singly, not becoming buried within thallus. Link |
| Name History |
Adjective (Latin), small and shrubby |
| References |
asso, D. & Rodondi, G. (2006). A Mediterranean population of Spongites fruticulosus (Rhodophyta, Corallinales), the type species of Spongites, and the taxonomic status of S. stalactitica and S. racemosa. Phycologia 45: 403-416. |
| Habitat: |
Occurring as rhodoliths on soft bottoms, in sediment composed of a mixture of biodetrital coarse fraction and terrigenous mud, sown to a depth of 75 m (Basso & Rodondi 2006) |
| Type information: |
Type species: This is the type species (lectotype) of the genus Spongites |
