Morphology of Batrachospermum beraense (Batrachospermaceae, Rhodophyta) from a Bornean tropical rainforest, Malaysia

Abstract

Batrachospermum beraense Kumano (Batrachospermaceae, Rhodophyta) is reported for the first time from Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia. B. beraense from Sabah is characterized by the following combination of features: (i) olive green to blue-green monoecious or dioecious plants that are 2–7 cm high with a diameter of 300–590 μm, more or less dichotomously branched, and mucilaginous; (ii) laterally branched primary fascicles consisting of 7–18 cell-storeys; cylindrical or ellipsoidal fascicle cells that are 4.6–6.1 μm in diameter and 15–30 μm long with numerous short and long terminal hairs; (iii) spherical spermatangia that are 4–7 μm in diameter and are either terminal or subterminal on fascicles; (iv) straight carpogonium-bearing branches, differentiated from fascicles, that are 72–125 μm long, consisting of 8–14 cells, arising from a pericentral cell; (v) ovoidal and indistinctly stalked trichogyne; (vi) single, axial, and spherical to ellipsoidal carposporophytes that are 63–120 μm in diameter and obovoidal carposporangia that are 7.7–11 μm in diameter and 12–18 μm long.