Sargassum elegans Suhr, 1840: 257 (type locality: "Am Cap der guten Hoffnung'' [between Omsamculo (Umzimkulu) and Omcomas (Umkomaas) rivers, Natal, South Africa fide Drège, 1843: 157]).—Drège, 1843: 157.— J. Agardh, 1848b: 359.— Kützing, 1849: 612.— Barton, 1893: 83.— De Toni, 1895b: 110.— Grunow, 1915 [1915–1916]: 355.— Eyre, Broekhuysen, & Crichton, 1938: 92, 102.— Eyre & Stephenson, 1938: 32.— Stephenson, Stephenson, & Bright, 1938: 7.— Stephenson, 1944: 300, 302, 307, 349.— Stephenson, 1947: 299.— Isaac, 1957b: 91–92.— Isaac, 1958: 18, 20, fig. 7a.— Isaac & Chamberlain, 1958: 145.— Pocock, 1958: 25.— Isaac, 1959: 182.— Brown & Jarman, 1978: 1253, 1254, 1256.— Pichon, 1978: 420.— Seagrief, 1980: 24, fig. on pl. 6.— Bolton & Stegenga, 1987: 170.— Seagrief, 1988: 46, fig. 5:5.— Bolton & Stegenga, 1990: 234, 237.— Farrell, Critchley, & Aken, 1993: 150.— Branch et al., 1994: 318.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa.
Note: The type allegedly came from the Cape of Good Hope, but Stephenson (1947: 299) gave the range of the species as "Umpangazi to Still Bay and probably farther west also''.