Portrait

Description:

Portrait of Dictyosphaerium pulchellum (Nägeli,1849), a colonial green alga. The small cells are ovoid to reniform and are borne at the ends of colorless branching threads in groups of four. The threads are remnants of parental cell walls. Each cell has a cup-shaped chloroplast and solitary pyrenoid.The entire colony is embedded in a nearly invisible spherical gelatinous matrix. Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho June 2004. DIC optics.