Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder, 1845

Costanzo, Luca Giuseppe, Marletta, Giuliana & Alongi, Giuseppina, 2021, Non-indigenous macroalgal species in coralligenous habitats of the Marine Protected Area Isole Ciclopi (Sicily, Italy), Italian Botanist 11, pp. 31-44 : 31

Caulerpa cylindracea Sonder

Description.

The found specimens clearly show the features described by Rodríguez-Prieto et al. (2013), Cormaci et al. (2014), and Verlaque et al. (2015). The thalli of this species consist of stolons attached by numerous short slender rhizoids and bearing erect photosynthetic cylindrical axes. The erect fronds, with a simple axis, are rarely branched and slightly swollen at the base, bearing loose to moderately dense ramules, distichous or radial, inclined towards the apex. The ramules are sub-cylindrical to claviform, rounded at the apex and slightly attenuated downwards, without constraint at the point of attachment to the axis.

Chorology.

Pantropical.

Presumed introduction vector.

Ballast waters.

Remarks.

In the Mediterranean, C. cylindracea is widely distributed from the lower eulittoral to the upper circalittoral ( Cormaci et al. 2014). Most of the previous reports of this species were referred to as Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Boudouresque. In 2014, molecular studies assessed the identity of Mediterranean specimens as C. cylindracea ( Belton et al. 2014). In the MPA this species has been previously reported as C. racemosa by Giaccone and Pizzuto (2001).