Phymatolithon is a genus of non
geniculatecoralline 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]
References
^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.
^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.
S2CID2694963.
^
abcChamberlain, 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.
^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.