Caloglossa beccarii (Delesseriaceae, Rhodophyta) from freshwater rivers in Kerala, India, a critical new record

doi:2015.30.3.207

Algae > Volume 30(3); 2015 > Article

Algae 2015;30(3): 207-216. doi: https://doi.org/10.4490/algae.2015.30.3.207

John A. West¹^,*, Mitsunobu Kamiya², E. K. Ganesan³, Susan Louiseaux-de Goër⁴ and L. Jose⁵

¹School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
²Faculty of Marine Bioscience Fukui Prefectural University, 1-1 Gakuencho, Obama, Fukui 917-0003, Japan
³Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidad de Oriente, Cumaná 6101, Venezuela
⁴11 Rue des Moguerou, 29680 Roscoff, France
⁵Department of Botany, St. Albert’s College, Ernakulam, Kerala 682018, India

*Corresponding Author

Email: jwest@unimelb.edu.au

ABSTRACT

Caloglossa species occurs in freshwater streams around Southest Asia. We report it from 2 different riverine sites in Kerala, India. Tetrasporangiate plants were observed in field collections from the Periyar River and Chalakkudy River. The Chalakkudy isolate did not reproduce in culture but the Periyar isolate developed abundant tetrasporangial sori in culture. Many spores were discharged and most were abortive, but some germinated normally, sporelings forming male gametophytes with numerous spermatangial sori and females with many procarps, viable carposporophytes and some nonfunctional (no carpospores) pseudocystocarps. Some carpospores germinated forming new tetrasporophytes. Molecular evidence (28S rDNA and rbcL) placed the Indian specimens close to C. beccarii and C. fluviatilis. Considering the freshwater habitat and morphology of vegetative thalli (blade shape, rhizoid arrangement, and number of rhizoid filament per cell), the Indian specimens should be assigned to C. beccarii.

Key words: Caloglossa beccarii; Caloglossa fluviatilis; India; Kerala; LSU; rbcL