Thelesphaera Pascher, 1943
Holotype species: Thelesphaera alpina Pascher
Original publication and holotype designation: Pascher, A. (1943). Alpine Algen. I Neue Protococcalengattungen aus der Uralpen. Beihefte zum Botanischen Centralblatt 62: 175-196.
Description: Cells solitary, spherical, rarely compressed-spherical to ellipsoid, 10-12 &m in diameter. Cell wall bearing large, conical to lobe-like, sometimes nearly hemispherical, solid projections up to 5 &m in length. The projections, usually 3-(4) at each pole, tend to be disposed with those at one pole alternately arranged in respect to those at the opposite pole; sometimes with as many as 14 projections, more or less radially disposed. Chloroplast single, principally bowl-shaped, with (?without) a pyrenoid. Method of reproduction poorly known; apparently by formation of 2 autospores released upon rupture of the mother cell wall. Sexual reproduction and flagellated stages unknown. Thelesphaera apparently known only from the type locale, wet cliff faces of Austria. Komárek & Fott (1983) called attention to the close similarity between this alga and cysts and zygotes of some green algae. Fott (1976) considered Tetraedron olivaceum Beck-Mannagetta, described from the mountains of Czechoslovakia, to be assignable to this genus as Thelesphaera olivaceae (Beck-Mannagetta) Fott. Cells solitary, spherical, rarely compressed-spherical to ellipsoid, 10-12 &m in diameter. Cell wall bearing large, conical to lobe-like, sometimes nearly hemispherical, solid projections up to 5 &m in length. The projections, usually 3-(4) at each pole, tend to be disposed with those at one pole alternately arranged in respect to those at the opposite pole; sometimes with as many as 14 projections, more or less radially disposed. Chloroplast single, principally bowl-shaped, with (?without) a pyrenoid. Method of reproduction poorly known; apparently by formation of 2 autospores released upon rupture of the mother cell wall. Sexual reproduction and flagellated stages unknown. Thelesphaera apparently known only from the type locale, wet cliff faces of Austria. Komárek & Fott (1983) called attention to the close similarity between this alga and cysts and zygotes of some green algae. Fott (1976) considered Tetraedron olivaceum Beck-Mannagetta, described from the mountains of Czechoslovakia, to be assignable to this genus as Thelesphaera olivaceae (Beck-Mannagetta) Fott.
Information contributed by: G. Dillard. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2012-07-09 by Michael Guiry.
Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.
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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.
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Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
Michael Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 09 July 2012. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 April 2024
