New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Transfer of the New Zealand red alga Tylotus proliferus (Gracilariaceae, Gigartinales) to the genus Gracilaria

Gerald T. Kraft

School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia

Abstract Reproductive material of Tylotus proliferus (Harvey) Kylin from the North Island of New Zealand has been examined and found to conform to the genus Gracilaria. Because the name Gracilaria prolifera Reinsch is in current use for an alga from South Georgia in the subantarctic, the new name G. truncata is proposed, based on a prominent branch feature of the New Zealand species. Details of habit, vegetative morphology, and carposporophyte development of G. truncata are presented. The so-called "nutritive filaments" which characterise this and many other species of Gracilaria are discussed, and substitution of the term "traversing filaments" is suggested to avoid implying an unverified nourishment function of these structures. Some speculations on the possible relatives of G. truncata are made.

Received 8 September 1976
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1977, Vol. 15: 495-502.

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1970K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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