Description:

Thallus: erect, wiry, tough, in dense tufts, 1-4(-7) cm high, dark red to green; growth from single apical cell. Blades strap-shaped, constructed at base, to 1.3 mm wide, 125 µm thick; apices blunt; often unbranched, when present branchlets opposite, pinnate to irregular. Medullary cells 8-10 µm diam., surrounded by slender (to 8 µm diam.) thick-walled rhizines; rhizines concentrated at center of blade. Surface cells rounded to angular, 6-8 µm diam. Holdfasts peg-like, irregularly spaced, ventral on creeping stolon; stolon to 250 µm diam. Tetrasporangia spherical to oval, 16-18 µm diam., in elongated sori at branch apex. Cystocarps solitary, distal portion of fertile branchlets expanded.

Habitat:

Uncommon: on rocks or other hard surfaces; intertidal to 10 m deep.

Distribution:

Pacific Panama - New record for the eastern Pacific and Panama

Type Information:

Type locality: Wagap, New Caledonia

Classification:

Major Group: Rhodophyta - Class: Florideophyceae - Order: Gelidiales - Family: Gelidiaceae