ECOLOGY AND TAXONOMY OF Halimeda 



Halimeda melanesica Valet 

 Figure 48, 



Halimeda melanesica Valet (1966), p. 680, Figs 1, 2, Plate 1. 



153 



Fig. 48. H. melanesica. Isotype, New Caledonia, region of Luengoni, Loyalty Islands, 

 Isle Lifou, 10 I 64, Valet 1853. Discrete holdfast absent although photograph shows 

 rhizoidal filaments with sand associated with lower segments. (Photograph by 

 Jodi Grenga.) 



Plants forming flaccid clumps, to about 12 cm tall; holdfast function 

 appears to be served by aggregates of basal segments and adhering particles 

 of sand and shell which fix the thallus firmly to hard (rock) substrate, this 

 holdfast mass to 1 cm and possibly more in width; calcification light; basal 

 segment reniform, to 5 mm long, 9 mm broad, bearing two to four branches 



