Leptophytum
| Phymatolithon | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| (unranked): | Archaeplastida |
| Division: | Rhodophyta |
| Class: | Florideophyceae |
| Order: | Corallinales |
| Family: | Hapalidiaceae |
| Subfamily: | Melobesioideae |
| Genus: |
Phymatolithon Foslie, 1898 |
| Species | |
At least 11, including
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| Synonyms | |
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Phymatolithon is a genus of nongeniculate coralline red alga, known from the UK. and Australia It is encrusting, flat, and unbranched; it has tetrasporangia and bisporangia borne in multiporate conceptacles. 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. It periodically sloughs off its epithallus, reducing its overgrowth by algae by as much as 50% compared to bare rock.
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