J Phycol 2009 Jun 21;45(3):704-15. Epub 2009 May 21.
Botanic Gardens Trust, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney, New South Wales 2000, AustraliaDepartment of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USAZoology and Botany Department, São Paulo State University, Rua Cristóvão Colombo, 2265-15054-000 São José do Rio Preto, SP, BrazilDepartment of Botany, 3190 Maile Way, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822, USA.
Recent molecular and morphological data necessitate a major taxonomic revision of the Batrachospermales, an order of red algae, distributed in freshwater habitats throughout the world. This article is a synthesis of available information with some targeted additional sequence data, resulting in a few relatively conservative taxonomic changes to begin the process of creating a natural taxonomy for the Batrachospermales. To increase the information content of our taxonomic categories, and in particular to reduce paraphyly, we describe one new genus (Kumanoa) and a new section in Batrachospermum (section Macrospora), and we amend the circumscriptions of the family Batrachospermaceae (to include Lemaneaceae and Psilosiphonaceae), the genus Batrachospermum (to exclude the sections Contorta and Hybrida, raised to genus level as Kumanoa), and the sections Aristata, Helminthoidea, and Batrachospermum of Batrachospermum. We also provide a new name, B. montagnei, for the illegitimate B. guyanense, and recognize an informal paraphyletic grouping of taxa within Batrachospermum, the "Australasica Group." This taxonomic synthesis increases the level of monophyly within the Batrachospermales but minimizes taxonomic change where data are still inadequate.