Crucigenia

Crucigenia sp.

Crucigenia is a genus of colony-forming green algae from the class of Trebouxiophyceae.

Features

The representatives form flat, square colonies. Four small, uniform cells thereby form a square. The individual cells are 4 to 10 microns in length and have the shape of a triangle or trapezoid. You have a single, parietal chloroplasts which does not entirely fill the cell. A pyrenoid may be present or absent. The starch is formed within the plastids. The nucleus is situated in the center of the cell. It may be connected with each other in a jelly several colonies.

Asexual reproduction occurs by the formation of four-cell car colonies, ie that forms a new colony within a mother cell wall. These daughter colonies remain mostly connected to each other for a long time. Sexual reproduction is not known at Crucigenia.

Occurrence

Coelastrum comes in the plankton mainly from nutrient-rich waters, in rivers.

System

The genus comprises Crucigenia few species. AlgaeBase lists 11 recognized species.

Documents

• K.-H. Linne von Berg, K. Hoef -Emden, B. Marin, M. Melkonian: The Cosmos algae leader. The main freshwater algae under the microscope. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 192, ISBN 3-440-09719-6