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Abstract
J. Afonso-Carrillo, C. Rodríguez-Prieto, F. Boisset, C. Sobrino, I. Tittley and A.I. Neto. 2006. Botryocladia chiajeana and Botryocladia macaronesica sp. nov. (Rhodymeniaceae, Rhodophyta) from the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic, with a discussion on the closely related genus Irvinea. Phycologia 45: 277–292. DOI: 10.2216/04-97.1
Specimens from the eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Adriatic seas previously reported as Botryocladia chiajeana showed differences in morphology, and re-examination of Meneghini's original collection of Chrysymenia chiajeana (basionym B. chiajeana) revealed that only the Mediterranean and Adriatic specimens are in agreement with the original protologue, whereas plants reported from the eastern Atlantic are recognised here as Botryocladia macaronesica Afonso-Carrillo, Sobrino, Tittley & Neto sp. nov. The vegetative and reproductive morphology of western Mediterranean plants is examined in detail for the first time, and B. chiajeana is characterised by the following combination of features: solid axes bearing frequently dichotomously branched vesicles, vesicle walls three layered, outer cortical cells arranged in rosettes, secretory cells borne on modified medullary cells, spermatangia cut off from scattered spermatangial mother cells, cystocarps strongly protuberant and tetrasporangia cruciately divided and exposed on the outer cortical layer at maturity. From the Meneghini collection, a lectotype specimen of C. chiajeana was selected. Botryocladia macaronesica, known so far only from the islands of Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cape Verde, differs from other Botryocladia species by a unique combination of significant attributes including elongate saccate vesicles, near-continuous cortication of vesicle walls, secretory cells on unmodified medullary cells and completely immersed cystocarps. An analysis of the morphological characters currently used for separating Botryocladia from related genera (i.e. Chrysymenia, Gloiosaccion and Irvinea), showed that there is considerable overlap between Botryocladia and Irvinea. These genera are presently discriminated mostly by molecular evidence as the supposed morphological characters are shown here to vary considerably within the genus Botryocladia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our appreciation to the following persons for the loan of valuable herbarium specimens: to P. Cuccuini and G. Sartoni for the materials from the Museo Botanico dell'Università di Firenze (FI), to W. Prud'homme van Reine for the specimens from the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland (L), to G. Furnari for the specimens from his personal herbarium and J. Rull for recent collections from Tarragona. Thanks to G. Sartoni for the copy of the Meneghini paper and to Jordi Ros and Pere Tur for accompanying us on dives. J. Reyes and M. Sansón for collecting samples for us throughout the Canary Islands. Thanks to Dr José González Luis (University La Laguna) for kindly translating the diagnosis into Latin. This work has been partially supported by a grant of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology [Flora Phycologica Iberica, Bonnemaisoniales, Gracilariales, Palmariales y Rhodymeniales (Rhodophyceae), REN 2001-1473-C03-02], and JNICT funded project Praxis XXI – Biodiversity of the Azores Archipelago (2/2.1/BIA/169/94).