Although algae are generally considered to be aquatic organisms, their occurrence in arid soils has been known for a long time, and their presence in extremely dried regions such as desert and semi-desert or desert-steppe has also been reported by many authors (KILLIAN and FEHER, 1935 ; CHANTANACHAT and BOLD, 1962 ; CAMERON, 1964 ; OCAMPO-PAUS and FRIEDMAN, 1966 ; FRIEDMAN, LIPKIN, and OCAMPO-PAUS, 1967 : HOLLERBACH and SHTINA, 1969 ; NOVICHKOVA-IVANOVA, 1964, 1967 ; FRIEDMAN, 1971). The results described in these reports show that many subaerial and terrestrial algae may be able to passably torelate to extremely desicated habitat.
It is commonly regarded that in a coastal sand dune district, a distinctive seed plants vegetation develops under the influence of such peculiar ecological factors as dried sandy substrates, plenty of wind-borne salts, and an unstability of substrate by wind.
Publications however, on the algal vegetation of a coastal sand dune have hardly been noticed.
The present report deals as a preliminary note with ecological and taxonomical studies of terrestrial algae found in the coastal sand dune district in western Japan.