Abstract

Ueda, in the course of his systematic work on the lavers, Porphyra, in Japan and Korea in 1932, mentioned that most of the cultivated Porphyra belong to Porphyra tenera Kjellman. Then he, dividing the species into two forms, f. typica and f. kjellmani, put Korean cultivated Porphyra under the latter. From the 1930s to the early 1940s, Fujikawa, Kaneko and others worked on Physiological experiments or cultivational experiments of Porphyra in the culture-bed, but there was no mention about the cultivated Porphyra species. However, many fishermen generally recognize that the characteristics of cultivated Porphyra vary depending on their habitat or the picking season, and it is considered that these differences are due to the varieties of the species which are well adaptable to various environments. Recently, I have become aware of the predominant occurrence of P. yezoensis Ueda in most culture-beds of Korea as in the Tokyo Bay or other places in Japan. At present, since artificial seeding for the cultivation of Porphyra with Conchocelis has been carried out and peculiar species can be cultured, a study of the species of cultivated Porphyra has become an important subject. I collected the specimens from a number of culture-beds which are located in the legions shown in fig. 1 from January, 1968 to May, 1970 and found that there are five species, P. tenera Kjellman, P. yezoensis Ueda, P. kuniedai Kurogi, P. seriata Kjellman and P. suborbiculata Kjellman. Among them, P. kuniedai was treated as a round-type, a form of P. tenera, by Kunieda (1939) and Tanaka (1952) and the occurrence of this form is generally recognized by most fishermen. At present, as mentioned above, the most dominant species of cultivated Porphyra is P. yezoensis but the cultivation of P. tenera is restricted to certain culture-beds or the early half of the cultivation period. P. kunieda appears as a mixed species throughout most of the culture-beds, particulary in the later half of the period, while when it was picked in January it appeared dominantly in a place such as Gum-Dang where the 'Bal', splitted bamboo piece mat, was settled during the last of September. This is the first seeding process. The latter two species, P. suborbiculata and P. seriata appear frequently but in small amounts in the later half of the period particulary in the western region of the southern coast. However, it can not be ascertained when P. yezoensis becomes predominant, because specimens have not been available up until recent years but the process can be described as follows: We commonly recognize the ecological characteristics of P. tenera as follows; First, the conchospores of the species develop earlier and the period of its discharge is shorter than those of P. yezoensis; second, the microscopical buds discharge neutral spores which develop into new buds directly and buds develop repeatedly through a short period. Consequently, according to such above ecological characteristics, the species can grow thick on the 'Bal' exclusively. However, buds may disappear when they are harmed by disease such a 'infection by certain parasites or by other unusual environmental conditions. Thus P. yezoensis are enabled to grow on the 'Bal' instead of the former species since they not only develop later than the former but also macroscopical fronds discharge the neutral spore throughout the period from October to May. Likewise, if any disease appears in the culture-bed ill the later half of the period, the former is more severely damaged than the latter because the former have less resistance to the disease than the latter. Thus fewer frond survive and fewer carpospores which are the origin of the next generation can be discharged. However the latter by their nature can continue growing until early summer. In the case of the culture-bed where the above phenomenon occurs repeatedly P. yezoensis gradually may become the dominant species among cultivated Porphyra. In support of the validity of this process we find that according to the description and the plate of Wada (1941), P. tenera, P. yezoensis and P. kuniedai grow together in the culture-bed at the mouth of the Nakdong River where P. yezoensis occurs predominantly and mixed with P. kuniedai.

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