Myriotrichia
| Myriotrichia | |
|---|---|
| Illustration of Myriotrichia clavaeformis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | Sar |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Ochrophyta |
| Class: | Phaeophyceae |
| Order: | Ectocarpales |
| Family: | Chordariaceae |
| Genus: | Myriotrichia Harvey, 1834 |
| Type species | |
| Myriotrichia clavaeformis | |
| Species | |
Myriotrichia is a genus of brown algae.
It forms small, soft, olive-brown tufts on the surface of other plants. Filaments rarely exceed centimetres in length.: 105
It may grow by intercalary growth.: 105 Its sporangia may contain one or many cavities, and emerge directly from the surface cells; they may form a ring around the main nema.: 105 Dedicated photosynthetic machinery may be entirely absent.: 107
Its life history consists of alternation of phases; it has isogamous gametes, and dioecious gametophytes.
At warm temperatures 18 °C (64 °F), the alga reproduces sexually, forming single chambered "meiosporangia". At cooler temperatures, asexual reproduction took place in multi-chambered "mitosporangia".
The gametophyte phase only produces gametes when day length is long; with shorter days these too reproduce asexually. This is probably because the plants upon which they are epiphytic only grow in the spring. The gametophyte is filamentous – while the sporophyte bears parenchyma, even though it only reaches around 4 cm (2 in) in length.
The alga has a small genome with approximately 12 chromosomes.