New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Lessonia adamsiae sp. nov. (Phaeophyta: Laminariales) from the Snares Islands, New Zealand*

CAMERON H. HAY

New Zealand Oceanographic Institute
Private Bag, Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract A new species of Lessonia Bory, L. adamsiae C. H. Hay, with wide, conspicuously cor- rugated blades, a massive, woody, buttressed base, long, terete branches, and a lacunate cortex is described from Snares Island, New Zealand. This, the only species of Lessonia growing on the Snares, is compared in detail with the following species: - L. corrugata Lucas, which is endemic to Tasmania and hitherto the only Lessonia species previously described with corrugated blades; L. variegata J. Ag. from mainland New Zealand, L. brevifolia J. Ag., so far recorded from Auckland, Campbell, Antipodes, and Bounty Islands; L. nigrescens Bory from Chile and southern Peru; L. flavicans from the Falkland Islands and the Fuegian region of South America; L. vadosa Searles from Fuegia and the Falklands, and L. trabeculata Villouta et San- telices from northern and central Chile. The occur- rence of this very distinctive species on an island so close to the much larger and more widely dis- persed population of L. variegata on the New Zealand mainland is discussed in terms of recent geology and ocean circulation patterns.

Keywords Laminariales; Lessonia; kelp; new taxon; systematics; phytogeography; Snares Islands; New Zealand

Received 1 July 1986; accepted 12 September 1986
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1987, Vol. 25 : 295-308
0028-825X/87/2502-0295$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1987

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (3517K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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