Green Algae - Chlorophyta
- Ankistrodesmus
- Chlamydomonas
- Crucigeniella
- Dictyosphaerium
- Eudorina
- Gonium
- Oocystis
- Pandorina
- Pediastrum
- Scenedesmus
- Volvox
The green-algae group contains a larger number of genera and species than any other algal group. 90 % of the species are to be found in fresh water and only 10 % in marine water. In the sea the most of the green-algal are benthic. In fresh water the most of the green algae live as plankton, common in the open water column. Yet filaments of benthic green-algal are common on rocks and vegetation, special in floating water like streams.
The group embrace a wide variety of structural forms. The taxonomy, which is complicate with more than thousand different species, suggests that same specie has got different names because there are variations in structure and life cycle.
The green alga has chlorophyll b besides other photosynthetic pigments. Chlorophyll b gives a grass-green colour like the colour in higher plants. It is only in this algae-group that chlorophyll b is present. Sometimes other pigments can mask the green colour.
Green algae plankton is unicellular, with one single cell through the whole life, or the cells are hold together in different colonial forms part of the life story. Often the cells are hold together with mucilage, a colourless slimy substance in different forms, or the cells are hold together by other means. The green algae have two different kind of cells, cell with flagellum or cell without flagellum. Different genus like Chlamydomonas, Eudorina, Gonium, Pandorina and Volvox have two flagella while the most of the green algae have no flagella at all. The flagella give the cell swimming ability.
Eudrina.
Spirogyra and some of Volvox in the right bottom corner.