''Bornetella sphaerica'', commonly known as the spherical turtle shell, is a species of marine alga in the

Dasycladaceae The Dasycladaceae is one of the two extant families of green algae of the order Dasycladales. When found in Palaeozoic limestones, they typically indicate depositional depth of less than 5m.See the NCBI The National Center for Biotechnology ...

family. It is found in the tropical Indo-Pacific region, the type-location being

Sorong Sorong is the largest city and the capital of the Indonesian province of Southwest Papua. The city is located on the western tip of the island of New Guinea with its only land borders being with Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia's ...

Irian Jaya New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

, Indonesia.''Bornetella sphaerica''
at AlgaeBase. Retrieved on 18 November 2021.

Description

The

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

of ''Bornetella sphaerica'' is attached to the substrate by a disc-shaped holdfast. The slender cylindrical stipe is continuous with the central vein that extends halfway along the thallus. The vein bears whorls of fine lateral filaments and terminates in a whorl of threadlike branches with neatly-arranged inflated hexagonal ends. The whole thallus is rolled into a spherical mass with a diameter of about .

Distribution and habitat

''Bornetella sphaerica'' is found in the Indo-Pacific region, its range extending from East Africa and Madagascar to Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and northern Australia. It grows on reefs, on rocks and dead coral heads, at depths from the low

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

down to about .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q69713402 Dasycladaceae Algae of Australia Algae of Hawaii Species described in 1892