Six marine macroalgal genera new to South Africa

Research on the benthic marine algal flora of Natal has contributed many records of taxa new to South Africa. Four of the six genera new to this region reported here, Asparagopsis, Dudresnaya, Titanophora and Eucheuma, belong in the Rhodophyta, and the remaining two, Boergesenia and Trichosolen, to the Chlorophyta. The gametophyte of Asparagopsis taxiformis is reported for the first time in South Africa, and the tetrasporophyte of Dudresnaya hawaiiensis, which has not been seen before, is described. Two species of Eucheuma, E. cf. odontophorum and E. cf. denticulatum, are reported. Titanophora pikeana is identified from Natal specimens, all gametophytes, and new data are provided on its reproduction and structure, which, for the first time, is demonstrated to be uniaxial.