Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt 1955

Publication Details
Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt 1955: 306, figs 50, 51

Published in: Fensholt, D.E. (1955). An emendation of the genus Cystophyllum (Fucales). American Journal of Botany 42: 305-322, 51 figs.

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Type Species
The type species (holotype) of the genus Sargassum is Sargassum bacciferum (Turner) C.Agardh.

Status of Name
This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Basionym
Sargassum kjellmanianum f. muticum Yendo

Type Information
Type locality: Izumo, Prov. Kii, Honshu, Japan; (Yoshida 1978: 122) Lectotype: April 1902; TI; (Yoshida 1978: 122, 123)

Origin of Species Name
Adjective (Latin), without a point, awnless, blunt (Stearn 1983).

General Environment
This is a marine species.

Created: 31 March 1996 by M.D. Guiry.

Last updated: 01 November 2024

Verification of Data
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Distributional note
Originally known only from Japan, this species was first found in British Columbia in 1944 and in Oregon in 1947 (Fensholt 1955: 306). It first appeared in northern California in 1963 (Crescent City), southern California in 1970 (Santa Catalina Island), and in San Francisco Bay in 1973 (at Berkeley). Also in 1973, it was found for the first time in the north Atlantic at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England (Farnham, Fletcher & Irvine, 1973), as predicted by Dreuhl (1972). The species is now widely distributed from Norway to Spain and Portugal. It now occurs throughout the north Pacific, north Atlantic and Mediterranean showing an extraordinary ability to tolerate a wide range of conditions and is regarded as highly invasive (Norton, 1976). Silva (1979: 338) observes preceptively: "It is a weed in the sociological sense of a plant growing outside its original range and in such a manner as to be unwanted." A single plant was found in O'ahu, Hawai'i attached to the hull of a barge that had been towed from San Diego in California, but the species does not seem to have established itself in Hawai'i (Abbott & Huisman, 2004). Critchley et al. (1990) gives a comprehensive account of the spread of this entity up to 1990. See also Verlaque & al. >(2015: 95) who regard this species as a "pest and fouling organism" in the Mediterranean, where it first appeared in the Etang de Thau, France, in 1980. - (11 May 2006) - G.M. Guiry

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Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 01 November 2024. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 28 March 2025

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