The genus "Laurencia (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta)" in the Canary Islands

Abstract

The genus Laurencia LAMOUROUX is a group of medium-sized, erect, fleshy or cartilaginous, red al­gae distributed from temperate to tropical waters. During the last few years several collections along the coasts of the Canary Islands have shown the im­portant role of the Laurencia species in the intertidal communities; however, it is rather problematic to identify many of the taxa observed, and it seems necessary to make a biosystematic review of this ge­nus in the Macaronesian Region. LAMouaoux in 1813 established the genus with 8 species, but he didn't mention a type species. Critical systematic studies have been made by several authors, C. AGARDH (1823, 1824), J.AGARDH (1842, 1851, 1880), DE TONI (1903, 1924), YAMADA (1931), after reviewing many type specimens from different American and European Herbaria. TSENG (1943) studied the Hong-Kong species, DAWSON (1944, 1963) reported on the Pacific Mex.ican species, CRIBB (1958) on the Australian species (Southeastern Queensland), DuRIRATNAM (1963) on species from Sri Lanka and HOLLENBERG &. ABBOTT (1965) on the Californian species. More recently, the extensive works of SAITO (1964, 1966, 1967, 1969a, 1969b &. 1985), SAITO &. WOMERSLEY (1974), CHANG &. BANGNEI (1980, 1983) and NAM & KANG (1984) have made a great contri­bution to the knowledge of this genus in the Pacific Basin. In the Atlantic Coasts, SAITO (1982) made a short review of three typical European species: L. obtusa (HUDSON) LAMOUROUX, L. pinnatif ida (HUDSON) LA­MOUROUX and L. hybrida (De.) LENORMAND. Other researches carried out in this troublesome genus in the Atlantic Ocean were made by TAYLOR (1960) in Eastern Tropical and Subtropical Coasts of America, OLIVEIRA-FILHO (1969) in Brazil, MAGNE (1980) in the French Atlantic Coasts, LAWSON & JOHN (1982) in the West Coast of Africa, RODRIGUEZ DE RIOS ( 1981 ). RODRIGUEZ DE Rros & SAITO (1982, 1985) and RODRIGUEZ DE Rros & LOBO (1984) in Venezuela.