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Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Charophytes of Australia’s Northern Territory – II. Tribe Nitelleae

Michelle T. Casanova https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0516-7275 A B C E * and Kenneth G. Karol https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1219-4557 D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra, Vic. 3141, Australia.

B The Future Regions Research Centre, Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability, Federation University Australia, Mount Helen, PO Box 663, Ballarat, Vic. 3350, Australia.

C The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK.

D The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, USA.

E Present address: 273 Casanova Road, Westmere, Vic. 3351, Australia.

* Correspondence to: m.casanova@nhm.ac.uk

Handling Editor: Thorsten Lumbsch

Australian Systematic Botany 36(4) 322-353 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB22029
Submitted: 27 October 2022  Accepted: 21 July 2023   Published: 18 August 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

This study of Northern Territory charophytes deals with the tribe Nitelleae in family Characeae. We recognise 16 species of Nitella for the Territory. The list includes seven previously described species (Nitella belangeri, N. biformis, N. congesta, N. heterophylla, N. micklei, N. myriotricha and N. tumulosa, of which N. belangeri and N. tumulosa are newly recorded for the Australian flora), and nine newly described species (N. acanthospora, N. boreali-australis, N. crocodylus, N. limosa, N. martinii, N. nitida, N. oollooensis, N. silicea and N. townsendii). Of the five previously reported Nitella species in the Northern Territory (N. hyalina, N. myriotricha, N. penicillata, N. pseudoflabellata and N. subtilissima), only N. myriotricha is recorded in this study, because the other records were based on erroneous identifications or localities. All Nitella species described here can be distinguished on the basis of their morphology and reproductive arrangement. Keys, illustrations and descriptions of all the species are provided.

Keywords: charophyte, morphology, Nitella, Northern Territory, oospore, sp. nov., taxonomy, wetlands.


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