Morphology and morphometric variability in <I>Sargassum lapazeanum</I> (Sargassaceae: Phaeophyta) from the southwestern gulf of California

Abstract

Historically, species delimitation of Sargassum in the Gulf of Califomia has been uncertain. Dawson (1944) suggested that instead ofusing species names we should use the term "complex" as an altemative to delimit big groups. Only the Sinicola complex has been reassessed and now we are interested to continue with other of the complex in the Gulf of Califomia by a beeper analysis of Lapazeanum complexo
We consider first evaluate the traditional features to delimit the complex to see if they are consistent, persistent and stable. We did this by comparison between the features against modem and historically valuable collections. Based on our results the most consistent feature to distinguish the complex, and might be a species, is the asymmetric filoid and the lack of midrib in most plants. This strongly suggests that this is a species and can be delimit from S. horridum Setchell and Gardner. However, it is discussed the urgent need to make a wider evaluation in the entire Gulf ofCalifomia and in other ofthe complex to have a c1ear idea how many species we have in the region.