Grateloupia Serra sp. nov. H. W. Wang & Y. Lou (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta): a new species previously confused with Grateloupia asiatica in China

ABSTRACT

A new Grateloupia species from Luxun park, Qingdao Province, North China, was discovered during recent investigations and named Grateloupia serra H. W. Wang & Y. Lou sp. nov. Morphological observations showed that: (1) the thalli were purple to dark red, cartilaginous and mucilaginous in texture, 15–45 cm in height; (2) the surface of thalli was covered with numerous proliferous branchlets and proliferous branchlets that were dentate when on the main axes; (3) the thalli were 450–550 µm thick, a cortex consisted of 6–8 layers of oblong or rounded cells and a medulla covered by compact medullary filaments; (4) the carpogonial branch was 6-celled and the auxiliary-cell branch was 5-celled, they were typical Grateloupia-type; (5) the internal structure of mature tetrasporangia were cruciately divided, oblong or square in shape. The morphological differences were supported by molecular analyses based on ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase gene (rbcL) sequences. Sequences of four G. serra sp. nov. samples were embedded into the Grateloupia clade and showed no pairwise divergence.

KEYWORDS:

• Grateloupia serra sp. nov
• Halymeniaceae
• Rhodophyta
• morphological observation
• rbcL gene

SUBJECT EDITOR:

• Anna Fricke

Acknowledgements

We thank Yu Ling, Zhao Shuyu, Tian Yilin of Liaoning Normal University for their technical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Yu Lou http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-3995

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 30870161], [grant number 31270251] and [grant number 31570209].