Occurrence of Halophila decipiens Ostenfeld on Tenerife, Canary Islands

On 23 July 1980 a large number of specimens of Halophila decipiens Ostenfeld were collected along the south coast of Tenerife in a place called "El Confital". They grew on clayey sand at a depth between 19-23 m in rather localized stands. Later, on 24 October 1980, another population of this species was discovered in a place called "Costa Caricia", between 13-40 m depth, and here it was abundant. The presence of this phanerogam on the sandy-loamy bottoms in the sublittoral of Tenerife, means a new record for the marine flora of the Canary Islands, and, according to the monograph of den Hartog (1970), it is also the first record of this pantropical species from the eastern coasts of the Atlantic Ocean.