Systematic reassessment of the red algal genus Phyllymenia (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta)

A systematic reassessment of the sole representative of the South African genus Phyllymenia, P. belangeri, indicates a lack of clear-cut diagnostic characters to separate it from Grateloupia. The morphology of the auxiliary cell ampullae, widely regarded as a key generic character in the Halymeniaceae, is almost identical in both genera. The autapomorphic character that has traditionally separated Phyllymenia from Grateloupia is the formation of pronounced lateral cytoplasmic protuberances on inner cortical cells. However, the establishment of protuberances is correlated with the presence of large intercellular spaces between neighbouring cortical cell files, coupled with narrow intercalary cortical cells. Thus, in order to establish secondary pit connections to more distant neighbouring cells, cortical cell protuberances may have become more prominent in P. belangeri than in species of Grateloupia with smaller intercellular spaces. Phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast-encoded rbcL sequences for a dataset including four representatives of P. belangeri and 32 other species, currently placed in Grateloupia or Prionitis, resolve ( with high support) P. belangeri as a sister taxon of G. longifolia from South Africa. Based on morphological and molecular evidence, it is therefore proposed that Phyllymenia be reduced to a synonym of Grateloupia.