Helminthogloea Pascher, 1932

Holotype species: Helminthogloea ramosa Pascher

Original publication and holotype designation: Pascher, A. (1932). Über einige neue oder kritische Heterokonten. (Beiträge zur Kenntnis der einheimischen Algenflora. II.). Archiv für Protistenkunde 77: 305-359.

Description: Colonial, attached organisms, upright and branching, forming a small tuft to 1.5 mm high. Branches worm-like or even club-like resulting from the occasional enlargement of the extreme apices. Thalli comprised of a firm but not cartilaginous mucilage that is well delimited, transparent and slightly yellow. Cells 8-12 _m diameter, arranged without order within the mucilage, mostly spherical but sometime also pyriform or even triangular in section (especially in young cells). Some cells with clear mucilaginous sheath. Cells without cell walls, and although they resemble protoplasts of monoid cells, they are devoid of stigma and contractile vacuoles. Chloroplasts single when young, becoming mostly two with age and sometimes more; parietal and lamillate. Lipid granules and chrysolaminarin present. Vegetative reproduction by division of mother cells into two with each daughter cell secreting its clear mucilaginous envelope. The orientations of the divisions are such that the resulting cells are sometimes side by side and other times one behind the other, processes which result in branches in which the cells are not always positioned regularly. Divisions are especially common at branch apices. Sometimes vegetative cells are transformed into zoospores with two very unequal flagella inserted slightly below the anterior region. Zoospores with two parietal chloroplasts and no stigma. Cysts have not been observed. Helminthogloea rare and epiphytic on free roots of Aster tripolium L. in lagoons; reported from northern Europe. According to Ettl, Helminthogloea might also occur in freshwater.

Information contributed by: C. Cardinal-Legrand. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2021-10-04 by M.D. Guiry.

Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Gender: This genus name is currently treated as feminine.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Kawai, H. & Nakayama, T. (2015). Introduction (Heterokontobionta p.p.), Cryptophyta, Dinophyta, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta (except Coscinodiscophyceae, Mediophyceae, Fragilariophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Phaeophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae), Chlorarachniophyta, Euglenophyta. In: Syllabus of plant families. Adolf Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Ed. 13. Phototrophic eukaryotic Algae. Glaucocystophyta, Cryptophyta, Dinophyta/Dinozoa, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta/Ochrophyta, Chlorarachnniophyta/Cercozoa, Chlorophyta, Streptophyta p.p. (Frey, W. Eds), pp. 11-64, 103-139. Stuttgart: Borntraeger Science Publishers.

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Contributors
Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in CD format. These AlgaeBase descriptions are now being continually updated, and each current contributor is identified above. The PSA and AlgaeBase warmly acknowledge the generosity of all past and present contributors and particularly the work of Dr Parker.

Descriptions of chrysophyte genera were subsequently published in J. Kristiansen & H.R. Preisig (eds.). 2001. Encyclopedia of Chrysophyte Genera. Bibliotheca Phycologica 110: 1-260.

Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=45625

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 04 October 2021. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 02 May 2024