Check List 14(5): 827-832, doi: 10.15560/14.5.827
First record of a cyanobacterium Petalonema alatum (Borzì ex Bornet & Flahault) Correns (Cyanobacteria, Scytonemataceae) in Africa
Louis Maree‡, Sanet Janse van Vuuren‡, Anatoliy Levanets‡, Jonathan Taylor‡‡ North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Corresponding author: Sanet Janse van Vuuren ( sanet.jansevanvuuren@nwu.ac.za ) Academic editor: Luciane Fontana da Silva © 2018 Louis Maree, Sanet Janse van Vuuren, Anatoliy Levanets, Jonathan Taylor. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Maree L, Janse van Vuuren S, Levanets A, Taylor J (2018) First record of a cyanobacterium Petalonema alatum (Borzì ex Bornet & Flahault) Correns (Cyanobacteria, Scytonemataceae) in Africa. Check List 14(5): 827-832. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.5.827 |  |
Abstract
Petalonema alatum (Borzì ex Bornet & Flahault) Correns is a nitrogen fixing, subaerial cyanobacterium characterized by a blue-green trichome surrounded by a very broad, lamellated mucous sheath. It typically grows on dripping limestone rocks in temperate regions, but it has also been observed in some calcareous lakes and limestone springs. Although the species is known to be present in the Americas, Europe and Asia, no records could be found for its presence in Africa. In the last decade, it was sampled twice from rock surfaces in cave overhangs in the Free State Province of South Africa, representing a first record of its presence in Africa. A taxonomic description, microscope images as well as detailed geographical distributions of P. alatum are provided.
Keywords
Algae; caves; cyanobacterium; limestone; sandstone; subaerial; Scytonema