A new diminutive seaweed species, named Gracilaria tsengii, with specialized spermatangial sori was identified by the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The research results were published in the journal Algal Research.

Gracilaria tsengii is a tiny one in its big family, with an average height of only 1.7 centimeters. Researchers have collected specimens along the coast of China for nearly 10 years from 2013 to 2022, and constructed a DNA sequence dataset of the Gracilariaceae species.

Gracilariaceae are economically and ecologically important red algae used to produce agar in China. Therefore, understanding the diversity of species in Chinese waters is of great academic and economic value.

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