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planktothrix

planktothrix

planktothrix

Genus: Planktothrix| Cyanobacteria

HAB

Order: Oscillatoriales

Family: Phormidiaceae

Description: Planktothrix is a filamentous free-living blue-green alga, normally solitary but sometimes in easily disintergrating groups. Almost all species are planktonic, few of them causing blooms, mainly in mesotroph or slightly eutrophic to eutrophic reservoirs (usually lakes). Cells are slightly shorter than they are wide. End cells widely rounded or slightly narrowed with thickened outer cell wall.

This genus can produce the toxin microcystin.

 

 
This Phytoplankton Identification page is affiliated with CeNCOOS and HABMAP, and is maintained by the Kudela Lab at the University of California Santa Cruz. Details about site history, funding, and sources of information and images can be found here.