Rediscovering of Chara braunii (Characeae, Charophyta) in Madeira (Macaronesian region, Portugal)

Pedro Nascimento,Miguel Menezes de Sequeira,Leopoldo Medina

doi:10.5209/bocm.79754

Abstract

Chara braunii C.C. Gmelin (Characeae, Charophyta) was found in Madeira Island (Portugal) in a water channel in an agricultural area. This constitutes the first record of that species since 1944 in the Macaronesian region (Azores, Madeira and Canary archipelagos).

Highlights

Gmelin) Kütz.; Chara coronata Ziz ex Bisschoff) is a monoecious polymorphic (Kato et al 2008) and cosmopolitan taxon (Krause 1997, Urbaniak, 2007), which occurs between 65°N and 35°S according to Wood (1965), GBIF (2021) shows a wider distribution area
(2019) found Ch. braunii in a karstic temporary pool of northern Sicily. This macrophytic algae was first cited in mainland Portugal by Gonçalves da Cunha (1934) and later found in the Azorean archipelago, identified as Nitella ornithopoda A
A Macaronesian distribution data set of Ch. braunii specimens from herbaria specimens were downloaded from GBIF (2021)

Summary

Introduction

Chara braunii occurs scarcely in wild aquatic habitats being more frequent in secondary and anthropogenous habitats such as shallow fish-ponds, rice fields, man-made ponds and water channels, all of them corresponding to fresh or oligohaline to subsaline (0,01- 1,12 mS/cm), alkaline or calcium rich waters, with medium to high eutrophication levels (Boira & Carretero 1985, Carretero 1993, Cirujano et al 1999, Soulie-Märsche & Vautier 2004, Cirujano et al 2007, Urbaniak 2007, Kato et al 2008). (2019) found Ch. braunii in a karstic temporary pool of northern Sicily. This macrophytic algae was first cited in mainland Portugal by Gonçalves da Cunha (1934) and later found in the Azorean archipelago, identified as Nitella ornithopoda A. No published references for both Madeira and the Canarian Archipelagos are known. In the African Atlantic region of Morocco Muller et al (2017) refers to a unique locality of this taxon near Casablanca

Materials and methods

RESULTS

Discussion