Identify that alga:
Web-based key to genera -3: branched filaments with chloroplasts

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filaments

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branched
+chloroplast
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unbranched
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Colonies and coenobia
+chloroplast
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planktonic,
with sheath  
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planktonic,
without sheath  
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 attached
cushion
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 attached,
 flat plate
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attached,
sheath
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Colonies and coenobia : Cyanobacteria
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planktonic,
with sheath
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Unicells

(under development)
 + chloroplast(s)
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(under development)
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non-flagellate cells
without case
(under development)
 in silica case
= diatoms
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flagellate cells

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no chloroplast:
Cyanobacteria
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  Branched filaments Click on the thumbnail for a larger image
 

True branching (formed by lateral division of a cell)

  
 

False branching (not as above: formed by growth of end of a broken filament): seen mainly in Cyanobacteria

  
       
 

True Branching

  
 

Cells in main axis and branches different diameters (NB not the branches themselves)

  
 

Cells in branches all same diameter (but may taper towards ends):

 
       
 

Cells different diameters

  
 

Plant uniseriate (1 series of cells in each filament), chloroplasts present

 

 

Plant and chloroplasts green, enveloped in loose, slippery mucilage. Side branches much divided with terminal hairs, main axis cells same length whether or not they bear branches.


Draparnaldia:

If branch-bearing cells are shorter, it is Draparnaldiopsis
       
 

Filament multiseriate (main axis)

  
 

Plant brown, olive-green or blue-green, smallest branches in whorls, enveloped in slippery mucilage


Batrachospermum: (Rhodophyta) "frog-spawn alga"
       
 

Cells same diameter

 
 

Filament multiseriate

  
 

 Plant green, macroscopic, forming a hollow branching tube

   Enteromorpha: more commonly known as a marine species
       
 

Plant grey-green or brown, filament multiseriate (more than 1 cell in width, except at tip), tough, wiry, with tapering branches and swellings (nodes) at intervals. Chloroplasts grey, disc-shaped, around periphery of cell.
  Lemanea: a Rhodophyte
   
 

Cells arranged in series (usually single) in a broad sheath.Branching is false and cells have blue-green chloroplasts with clearly visible pyrenoids

  
  Asterocystis (Chroodactylon): Rhodophyte
   
 

Plant brown, olive-green or blue, cells without chloroplasts, branches sticking out at right angles to main axis: Cyanobacterium: see here for more.

 Stigonema     Hapalosiphon
       
 

Filament uniseriate

  
 

Plant reddish or grey-green, chloroplasts disc shaped, branches without terminal hairs


Audouinella
       
 

Plant coarse-feeling, much-branched, with net-like chloroplast
Cladophora
       
 

Plant small, filaments short, chloroplasts disc-shaped, parietal, cells without bristles


Heterococcus
 

Plant small, prostrate, chloroplasts disc-shaped, cells often with a sheathed bristle
  Coleochaete: other species are pseudoparenchymatous (forming a flat disc)
   
       
 

Branching usually sparse or moderate, ends of filaments bearing pointed cells or drawn into long multicellular hairs. No colonial mucilage. Chloroplast a green parietal band:

["Hair" refers to a cellular or multicellular extension to a filament: "bristle", "seta" and "pseudocilium" are non-cellular]
   

plant attached to surfaces
Stigeoclonium: this actually has 2 filament types, erect and prostrate (which attaches it to the substratum, but is not usually collected in field specimens)
   

plant epiphytic on other algae
  Aphanochaete:
       
    Branching repeated, with ends of filaments bearing pointed cells or drawn into long multicellular hairs: the whole colony contained in a firm, dense mucilage.
Chaetophora
       
 

Filament irregular in thickness, cells tapering, each bearing a seta (hair) with a bulbous base


Bulbochaete
       
 

Filament composed of separate spherical cells in mucilage
  Palmodictyon
         

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John Kinross