Family: Delesseriaceae |
Bocas Species Database Habitat: Mangrove roots. Specially in roots from the species Rhizophora mangle Distribution: Atlantic and Pacific Islands, North, South and Central America, Africa, Indian Ocean, Australia, Asia, New Zealand, Caribbean Islands. Characteristics: Thalli are foliose, postrate and soft. Color is coffee-brown, violet or pale pink. Leaves are lobed or ovoid, 1-2 mm wide, 1-6 mm long, dichotomous, basal-constricted and develop from a prominent central cell. Each blade has a conspicuous central vein, which consists of elongated axial cells surrounded by cortical cells. Monostromatic blades with sub-hexagonal cells develop in oblique series. Blade apices have hairpin-like bifurcations. Secondary blades develop from the central vein. This alga attaches to the substrate by mean of rhizoids, which cluster in the thallus’s ventral part and form nodes at the blades’ constricted bases. Notes: This plant is different to C. leprieurii, which has been previously observed in Bocas del Toro. The main difference is that blades are too much more constricted in the base than C. leprieurii blades are |