Vaucheria edaphica Muralidhar, Novis &amp; Broady 2014, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Muralidhar, Abishek
name: Broady, Paul A.
name: Macintyre, Duncan P.
name: Wilcox, Michael D.
name: Garrill, Ashley
name: Novis, Phil M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Chromista
Ochrophyta
Xanthophyceae
Vaucheriales
Vaucheriaceae
Vaucheria
Vaucheria edaphica

description: <i>Vaucheria edaphica</i> Muralidhar, Novis &amp; Broady, <i>sp</i>. <i>nov</i>. Siphons 25–40 µm diameter; branches frequent.Alga monoecious; antheridia lateral to 1–2 oogonia borne on a gametophore; gametophores frequent (Fig. 8). Antheridia circinate, 70–90 µm long × 20–35 µm diameter. Oogonia 1–2, reniform, pendent, 75–100 µm long × 25–35 µm diameter, mostly sessile, rarely with short pedicels (always &lt;10 µm long); distal prominence towards peduncle; wall thin. Oospores same size as oogonia, no oogonial cavity left behind by mature oospores. <b>Type:—</b> NEW ZEALAND:. Canterbury: Christchurch (43.554800° S, 172.628833° E), <i>P</i>. <i>A</i>. <i>Broady</i>, <i>7 August 2012</i>, UCVT1 (CHR 631520). <b>Section:—</b> <i>Racemosae</i>. <b>Etymology:—</b> named after the edaphic nature of the type strain which, was sourced from garden soil. <b>Molecular data:—</b> In terms of p-distance, our <i>V</i>. <i>edaphica</i> strain was closest to a <i>V</i>. <i>walzii</i> Rothert (1896: 82) strain from Botanical Garden, University of Düsseldorf, Germany (p-distance = 0.063). <b>Notes:—</b> Although <i>V</i>. <i>edaphica</i> shared some common traits with other species in sect. <i>Racemosae</i>, it was difficult to place it unequivocally under any of these species. It most closely resembled <i>V</i>. <i>prona</i> as recorded by Entwisle (1988a, b) but his strains often showed more than two oogonia on each gametophore which were in different orientations and had pedicels always&gt; 10 µm long. He suggested referring to all these populations with one or more oogonia and with no distal oogonial cavity left behind by mature oospores as <i>V</i>. <i>prona</i> (Entwisle 1988a, b). Our strain was distinct as it never had more than two oogonia which were mostly sessile and rarely possessed very short pedicels always &lt;10 µm. The oogonia of this strain were always laterally oriented towards the antheridium. The number and orientation of oogonia and length of the oogonial pedicels have been used as delineating characters in this section and we based our decision to erect this strain as a new species based on these characters. We suggest that populations with one to two oogonia, laterally oriented towards the antheridium, mostly sessile or sometimes with a short oogonial pedicel (&lt;10 µm) and with no oogonial cavity left behind by the mature oospore, should be referred to as <i>Vaucheria edaphica</i>. A comparison of characters of some closely related morphospecies in the sect. <i>Racemosae</i> is given in Table 5. While we erected the species solely based on the morphological differences mentioned above, our strain was found to be genetically distinct from all other species in sect. <i>Racemosae</i> including all <i>V</i>. <i>prona</i> sequences in Genbank. This strain grew as light green mats on moist soil surfaces. Field material was fertile.
description: Published as part of <i>Muralidhar, Abishek, Broady, Paul A., Macintyre, Duncan P., Wilcox, Michael D., Garrill, Ashley &amp; Novis, Phil M., 2014, Morphological and phylogenetic characterization of seven species of Vaucheria (Xanthophyceae), including two new species, from contrasting habitats in New Zealand, pp. 117-136 in Phytotaxa 186 (3)</i> on page 131, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.186.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5146996
description: {"references": ["Rothert, W. (1896) Vaucheria walzii n. sp .. Nuova Notarisia 7: 81 - 83.", "Entwisle, T. J. (1988 a) A monograph of Vaucheria (Vaucheriaceae, Chrysophyta) in south-eastern mainland Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 1: 1 - 77. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1071 / SB 9880001"]}