#chlorophyta

I know what you're thinking: he's on the jelly lichens again, but no! This is just some perfectly normal sea weed hanging out on the beach, doing seaweed things.

beautiful Draparnaldia sp. that we keyed out in lab prep today :)

P. duplex

Chlorophyta (big category of green algae less closely related to land plants): I wasn't sure I was going to have anything interesting to say about these guys, but I was so wrong! With over 4,000 known species, chlorophytes are extremely diverse. Most live in fresh water, but some live in the ocean or on land. Some live in extreme environments, like deep sea hydrothermal vents, hypersaline lakes, deserts, and the arctic. Some have mutualistic relationships with animals like mollusks or sponges or cnidarians, and others have mutualistic relationships with fungi, forming lichen. While plants are known for being autotrophs (creating their own food), some chlorophytes are heterotrophs -- they get their nutrition from other organisms, either as parasites or otherwise. Some are pathogens.

15/06/22

Pretty things hiding right under your nose

Credit: Jean-Marc Babalian Nantes, France

Another day of studying in our school’s Pharmacy building. It’s absolutely beautiful and very eco-friendly. I have an exam in my ‘Biology of Algae’ class this week as well as one in Microbiology so it’s going to be rough. Today I am focusing on my chlorophyta. I love the lab for this class. Here’s a pretty cool pic of some anabaena that I took at last week’s lab. I’m still having trouble making my own cross-sections of algae blades though.