Caloglossa leprieurii (Montagne) G.Martens

Ganesan, E. K., West, John A. & Jr, Orlando Necchi, 2018, A catalogue and bibliography of non-marine (freshwater and estuarine) Rhodophyta (red algae) of India, Phytotaxa 364 (1), pp. 1-48 : 24

Caloglossa leprieurii (Montagne) G.Martens

Muthukannu 1984, p. 16; Santra & Pal 1988, p. 40, Pl.X, figs 56–58. Desikachary et al. 1998, Part II B, p. 254, figs F–H; Chaugule & Lobo 1990, p. 4, figs 1–4: Narasimha -Rao & Umamaheswara Rao 1991, p. 154; Umamaheswara Rao & Premila 1996, p. 87; Kannan & Thangaradjou 1998, p. 30; Umamaheswara Rao 1999, p. 122, fig. 40; Mukhopadhyay & Pal 2002, p. 101, fig. 3 B, Pl. I, fig. h, Pl. III, fig. c; Mukhopadhyay et al. 2003, p. 72, fig. 15; Sen & Naskar 2003, p. 188, Pl XXII, fig.140 a, b, Photo Pl XXVIII; Chaugule 2004, p. 69.

Distribution in India:Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Chiryatappu, near Port Blair); Andhra Pradesh (polluted waters of Visakhapatnam harbor; Gautami, Godavari estuary); Gujarat (Malvan, Gulf of Cambay); Kerala; Maharashtra (Western Ghats, Konkan in a stream at Guhagar river, Vashisti near Chiplun); Tamil Nadu (Porto Novo, Pitchavaram mangrove); West Bengal (Sundarbans: Gosaba and Prentice Island, South & North 24–Paraganas of Hugly river estuary, Bakkhali on pneumatophores and barks of mangroves; Matla-Bidya estuary).

Notes: Caloglossa leprieurii is probably the most easily recognizable and distinctive estuarine and marine red alga with a worldwide distribution, particularly in the mangrove and in marine habitats. Papenfuss (1961) provided careful studies on the structure and reproduction from collections made about half a mile upstream from a river mouth (Umzibvubu River, Port St. Johns, South Africa). In Australia, West (pers. observ.) collected specimens from some freshwater habitats like streams and “in a waterfall on the Hopkins river, Victoria, that was about 15 m above the river at the bottom, so it definitely did not have any saltwater influence in the past thousand years or more”. In India, according to Chaugule & Lobo (1990), the freshwater stream at Guhagar, near Mumbai, India, turns brackish occasionally due to the intrusion of seawater during extreme high water of spring tides. The Indian material ( Chaugule & Lobo 1990) showed no reproductive structures. Material from the polluted harbour of the Viskakhapatnam coastal waters were also sterile ( Umamaheswara Rao 1999). It is generally considered that C. leprieurii occurring strictly in freshwater conditions does not show asexual or sexual reproductive organs. However, Islam (1992) observed C. leprieurii from a freshwater river in Bangladesh (Bhairab, at Bagerhat) and remarked “thalli produced cystocarps and tetrasporangia profusely”. Kamiya et al. (2004) discussed in detail the speciation and biogeographical aspects of C. leprieurii complex. Kravesky et al. (2011) studied in detail the C. leprieurii complex in the Americas and recognized only four species. Similar studies are needed for more than a dozen names attributed to C. leprieurii in the Old World.