A new stonewort record for Turkey: Chara polyacantha A.Braun

The charophyte flora of Turkey is poorly described and documented as lack of accurate and detailed documentation of collections as well as absence of voucher specimens proving its existence. During the project which is called as “Establishment of Reference Monitoring Network in Turkey” supported by Directorate General for Water Management of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, we carried out several field surveys to the West Mediterranean Region and collected several Chara and Nitella specimens from the various water bodies found in the region. Among the collected Charophyte populations, two unusual populations seem to be different than the ones we already met earlier. Careful morphological and microscopically examinations of the unusual populations proved that they were new for Turkey algal flora. Finally they were identified as C. polyacantha which was already known from Europe. The diagnostic morphological characters discriminating it from of Chara hispida C. rubis and C. aspera are pointed out. Notes are presented on its ecology and phenology. A distribution map of this species is also given.