Sheathia boryana (Sirodot) Salomaki & M.L.Vis, 1980

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 : 18-19

Sheathia boryana (Sirodot) Salomaki & M.L.Vis

Taxonomic synonyms: Batrachospermum anatinum Kumano 2002, p. 92 ; Batrachospermum ectocarpum Sirodot : Balakrishnan & Chaugule 1980c, p.237; Desikachary et al. 1990, Part II A, p. 90.

Distribution in India: South India (exact locality unknown).

Notes: Balakrishnan & Chaugule (1980c) provided detailed morphological description for the Indian specimens (as Batrachospermum ectocarpum ), based on Skuja’s specimens identified as B. pulchrum Sirodot. They also accepted Israelson’s (1942) synonomy of B. pulchrum with B. ectocarpum . The place and date of collection were not provided, but presumably from a collection made by M. O. P. Iyenger in South India. The Indian specimens were polyecious (or “polygamous” as described by them), although it is mostly monoecious in other latitudes. But most importantly, Vis et al. (1995), Kumano (2002) and Kostkevišienċ & Luchiute (2005) treated B. ectocarpum as a synonym of B. anatinum . Stewart & Vis (2007 a, b) showed that B. confusum (Bory) Hassal is the correct binomial for this species. From the description given by Balakrishnan & Chaugule (1980c) and by comparing those with the recent literature cited above, particularly that of Kostkevišienċ & Luchiute (2005) the Indian plants may be referrable to B. confusum , as this species is currently circumscribed. More recently, Salomaki et al. (2014) treated Batrachospermum confusum as Sheathia confusa and treated B. anatinum as a synonym of S. boryana (Sirodot) Salomaki & M.L.Vis. Balakrishnan & Chaugule’s (1980c) provided some critical vegetative and reproductive features like (i) “cortication of the main axis is well-developed and (ii) elongate to club-shaped trichogynes, involucral filaments numerous, long, embracing the carpogonia and later the gonimoblasts” in the Indian plants; based on these features, they may be referrable to the genus Sheathia . Molecular characteristics of the Indian plants are required to confirm our present assignment. We followed Kumano (2002) and Salomaki et al (2014) to include both B. anatinum and B. ectocarpum as heterotypic synoyms of Sheathia boryana .

Genus - Sirodotia Kylin