Prasiola

Prasiola is a genus of macroscopic green algae, found in a variety of habitats ranging from terrestrial, freshwater, to marine. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, ranging from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Plants belonging to the genus Prasiola were first described by John Lightfoot in 1777 in his series Flora Scotica, as the name Ulva crispa. In 1838, Giuseppe Giovanni Antonio Meneghini circumscribed the genus. Species of Prasiola are edible and are often harvested for food, particularly Prasiola japonica, in countries such as Japan and Myanmar.

Prasiola is a genus of macroscopic green algae, found in a variety of habitats ranging from terrestrial, freshwater, to marine. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, ranging from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Plants belonging to the genus Prasiola were first described by John Lightfoot in 1777 in his series Flora Scotica, as the name Ulva crispa. In 1838, Giuseppe Giovanni Antonio Meneghini circumscribed the genus. Species of Prasiola are edible and are often harvested for food, particularly Prasiola japonica, in countries such as Japan and Myanmar.

Evolution

Molecular phylogenetic studies have found that Prasiola is sister to a clade containing the similar genus Rosenvingiella and Rosenvingiellopsis. The genera Prasiola and Rosenvingiella were sometimes considered to be congeneric. The studies have also shown that freshwater and marine species of Prasiola are representatives of a lineage that back-colonized their habitats from a terrestrial ancestor; this is the opposite situation of colonization from sea to land and with few documented examples. Prasiola forms a nearly monophyletic group, but the subaerial alga Prasiococcus was found to be nested within the Prasiola clade.

References

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1342243975 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.