Chara squamosa Desfontaines 1799

Publication Details
Chara squamosa Desfontaines 1799: 331

Published in: Desfontaines, R. (1799). Flora atlantica, sive historia plantarum, quae in Atlante, agro Tunetano et Algeriensi crescunt. Tomus secundus. pp. 161-458, pls 181-261. Parisiis [Paris]: L.G. Desgranges.

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Type Species
The type species (lectotype) of the genus Chara is Chara vulgaris Linnaeus.

Status of Name
This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Type Information
Type locality: "in rivulis Cafsae" [Kêf, Tunisia]; (Desfontaines 1799: 331) Lectotype (Barbarie, designated by Wood in Wood & Imahori 1965: 108): PC; 610826, ex herb. Maire (Wood & Imahori 1965: 108) Notes: 'wohl Kâf (Kêf) in Tunis' fide Braun, 1868: 909 (INA).

General Environment
This is a freshwater species.

Created: 07 December 2008 by M.D. Guiry.

Last updated: 14 January 2025

Verification of Data
Users are responsible for verifying the accuracy of information before use, as noted on the website Content page.

Distributional note
"Mediterranean: Portugal, Spain (mainland and Baleares), Italy (mainland, Sardinia, Sicily), Hungary, Serbia, and outside of Europe from North Africa - Tunisia, Morocco, Middle East - Israel, and Caucasus (as C. hungarica: Filarszky, 1930; as C. conimbrigensis: Cunha, 1935, 1942, 1943; Mendes, 1948; Wood, 1965; Corillion, 1977; Guerlesquin, 1985; Sánchez, 1984; Romanov et al., 2019; as C. rohlenae: Blazencic and Stevanovic, 2018; Romanov et al., 2023; R. Romanov & S. Barinova unpubl. data; COI, LE, LISU, MA, TELA, checked by R. Romanov; BP, checked by A. Mesterházy & R. Romanov). Targeted search for specimens of C. squamosa in different collections undertaken by R. Romanov was not as successful as expected. C. squamosa seems to be rare in comparison to C. gymnophylla in the Mediterranean. The total number of its localities in the world did not exceed 35, including a new record for Israel, a few recent records from Italy (M. Iberite pers. comment) and Serbia until recent update (Trbojevic et al., 2024). Current records of C. gymnophylla sensu Krause (1997) from Sardinia (Becker, 2019) with predominantly isostichous or tylacanthous main axis cortex and only very rarely additional aulacanthous parts were verified by R. Becker and R. Romanov as C. squamosa. Moreover, many former Italian records of C. gymnophylla mentioned in Bazzichelli and Abdelahad (2009) were tylacanthous (N. Abdelahad pers. comm.). Thus, verification of herbarium specimens should be done in order to clarify whether they are to be treated as C. squamosa. The records from Croatia and Macedonia (Blazencic and Blazencic, 1997; Blazencic et al., 2006) were based on juvenile plants of C. papillosa (BEOU, revised by J. Blazencic & R. Romanov). A recent record of C. rohlenae in Serbia (Blazencic and Stevanovic, 2018) seems to belong to C. squamosa because the plants were described as having irregular main axis cortex varying from tylacanthous to isostichous, rarely even aulacanthous. The merging of tylacanthous and aulacanthous morphotypes in C. gymnophylla (Krause, 1997) further complicated this case, resulting in few records of C. conimbrigensis published for Portugal and Spain only. The problem can be overcome by restudy of all available specimens and further field studies. The comprehensive study updated the distribution of C. squamosa in Serbia, where it is a rather common species (Trbojevic et al., 2024)." (Romanov & al. 2024). - (14 January 2025) - M.D. Guiry

Conservational note
"Chara squamosa has been assessed as DD (Data Deficient) in the European Red List (see Chap. 9). The population from a thermal spring in Budapest was lost at the beginning of 1900s. At that time natural thermal springs were transformed to concrete pools. Boros (1937) visited this place many times between 1915 and 1926 and he did not find C. hungarica again." (Romanov & al. 2024). - (14 January 2025) - M.D. Guiry

Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=133961

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 14 January 2025. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 May 2025

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