Audouinella eugenea (Skuja)

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 : 11

Audouinella eugenea (Skuja) C-.C. Jao

Desikachary et al. 1990, Part II A, pp. 75–76, fig. 11 A–C; Kumano 2002, p. 41, Pl. 18, figs 3, 4; Pl. 24, fig. 2.

Taxonomic synonyms: Chantransia eugenea Skuja 1934, p. 177 , Pl. I, figs 3–5; Pseudochantransia eugenea (Skuja) Ott 2009, p. 377 .

Distribution in India: Punjab (wider and former undivided Punjab province prior to the Partition of India in 1947).

Notes: The type locality (Lahore) is commonly given as India. But Lahore is located now in Pakistan. It is a species with a wide distribution reported from tropical mainland North America and Hawaii ( Sherwood 2004) to Australia & New Zealand (Bostok & Holland 2010) and Brazil ( Necchi et al. 1993b; Zucchi & Necchi 2003). Two categories i.e., reddish and bluish species are recognizable in the genus Audouinella ( Necchi et al. 1993b; Zucchi & Necchi 2003). As judged from the description of Desikachary et al. (1990), the specimens based on Skuja’s (1934) original collection, are reddish-violet and belong to the first category. Skinner & Entwisle (2001) provided a detailed description and figures of the Australian specimens and indicated that a “collection (of A. eugenea ) was found among the rhizoids at the base of Batrachospermum antipodites and may perhaps be its “ Chantransia ” (or sporophyte) phase”. Carmona & Necchi (2001; see also Carmona & Beltrán 2007) on numerous collections of A. eugenea from Central Mexico and south-eastern Brazil, showed the presence of numerous spermatangia and putative propagules for the first time. These findings suggest that plants identified as “ A. eugenea ” from widely distant geographical latitudes probably include a complex involving different genetic species.