XVI International Botanical Congess

The Ulvaceae (Ulvophyceae, Chlorophyta) are a morphologically simple group of cosmopolitan seaweeds. Recent systematic hypotheses for the Ulvaceae are based on characters related to morphology, life cycle, and germling development, however, the evolution of these anatomical, ontological and life cycle traits is unclear. Thus, the reliability of these characters to diagnose intergeneric relationships is uncertain. To address questions of character evolution and test systematic hypotheses, we inferred phylogeny for 7 putative Ulvaceaen genera (Blidingia, Capsosiphon, Enteromorpha, Kornmannia, Percursaria, Ulva and Ulvaria) using nuclear rDNA (18S and ITS) sequences. Our present results support the close relationship of Ulva and Enteromorpha reported by previous workers. A monophyletic Ulvaceae includes these taxa, Percursaria and Ulvaria.