Type Locality: French Guiana, South America.
Distribution: South America: Brazil, French Guiana; North America: U.S.A.
“Plants dioecious, rarely polyoecious, very (rarely moderately) mucilaginous, 3.5-15 cm high, 600-2500 mm in diameter, irregularly and abundantly branched; whorls well-developed, lax, rarely dense, obconical, pear-shaped or spherical, contiguous or separated; fascicles 2-4, primary fascicles straight, di- or trichotomously branches, 5-10(-12) cell-storeys, proximal cells ellipsoidal of cylindrical, 6-25 mm in diameter, 50-180 mm long, distal cells obovoidal, hemispherical of ellipsoical, 7-30 mm in diameter, 10-50 mm long, terminal hairs short and long; secondary fascicles numerous, reaching or not reaching the length of primary ones; spermatangia spherical or obovoidal, 6-9 mm in diameter, terminal or subterminal on fascicles; carpogonium-bearing branches straight, long, 40-200 mm long, consisting of 3-16 barrel-shaped or cylindrical cells, arising from periaxial cells, rarely from proximal cells or cortical filament cells; carpogonia 6.5-13.5 mm in diameter at the base, 12-18 mm in diameter at the apex, 30-50 mm long, filaments in rosettes, lower involucral filaments numerous; carposporophytes 1-2(3), pedunculate, dense, spherical, 90-220 mm in diameter, extending from periphery of whorl; carposporangia obovoidal, pear- or club-shaped, very big, 20-45 mm in diameter, 32.5-60 mm long; carpospores germinating in situ. “
Kumano, S. 2002. Freshwater red algae of the world. Biopress Ltd. 375pp.
