Article

Most taxonomists have moved to systematics in our days, but this does not apply for the Mediterranean workers who stili are confronted with the inheritance of a large number of poorIy known taxa and a complex flora that inc1udes elements of several different origins. The first task will keep its byzantine status as long as no serious attempt is made to catalogue the literature published in some ten languages and start the typification of the hundreds of val id names described since the Linnean periodo The second task, to identify and circumscribe the taxa, necessitates a broad comparative approach that local workers have only recently realised. The taxonomy of red algae, having its roots in the Mediterranean and being mainly based on features of the gonimoblast development and the presence/absence of an auxiliary cell, as originally founded by Schmitz and Oltmanns and later refined by Kylin and his students, remains a challenge. While molecular systematics straggle to guide us in the complex world ofthese over a billion years old organisms, our understanding of taxon relationships will remain based on structural diversity for many years to come. Such data range from thallus morphology and reproduction to ultrastructure of cell components. We need to enrich and update this enormous bank of information continuously, applying modern technologies but also keeping the Linnean c1assification system that has prove n efficient and on which taxonomy relies upon.