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Taxon
Staurotheca vanhoeffeni (Peña Cantero & García Carrascosa, 1994)
Nomenclature
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Family: SertulariidaeGenus: Staurotheca
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Synonyms: 1
SUMMARY
Colony stiff and woody, stem 2 mm thick at base, detached from hydrorhiza.
Stem sparsely branched in one plane, primary branches rather geniculate, pointing upwards, straight or curved, a few second order branches present. Stem and lower branches fascicled, tubes consisting of a sheath of more or less concentric layers of perisarc surrounding stem; sheath thick proximally, layers becoming fewer but lumpy along branches, completely enclosing branches but branches visible through transparent outer perisarc. Hydrocladia (branches) long, straight, internodes variable in length, 1–10 groups of hydrothecae on internode, nodes oblique to transverse, deeply constricted.
Hydrothecae flask-shaped, immersed in internode, walls not in contact, typically 3 but sometimes 4 (on older hydrocladia) arranged in a verticil around internode, base of each slightly upwardly displaced with respect to others; a proximal athecate section of internode below basal-most hydrotheca. Adcauline hydrothecal wall straight to weakly convexly curved proximally, curvature more convex in distal third, abcauline wall almost straight to faintly concave with outward flexure below marginal rim; base of hydrotheca flat to weakly concave, a thick knot of perisarc at base of adcauline wall. Margin of hydrotheca circular, a tilted slightly upwards, edentulate, not everted, protruding just clear of internode, rim often ragged and produced into a short collar by numerous fine replications; operculum a thin, low dome.
Female gonothecae given off branch above a hydrotheca; pedicel short, wide, slightly bent, merging into gonotheca; body of gonotheca heart-shaped, widening from base to rounded shoulder, walls smooth to faintly undulated, distal end a platform with central wide orifice surrounded by a low collar and a pair of wing-shaped lobes, side of collar slightly outwardly turned and facing adcaudally. Perisarc very thick.
Colour: Colony uniformly dark brown.