Cyanothrix
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Authority
Gardner, Nathaniel L. 1927. New Myxophyceae from Porto Rico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 1-144. pl. 1-23.
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Family
Synechococcaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants filamentous, cylindrical, monosiphonous, composed of a single series of cells generated-by fission in one plane and held together by an ample gelatinous tegument. Type species, Cyanothrix primaria.
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Discussion
In creating this genus it is unfortunate that the material upon which it is based is not more abundant in the collections than I have been able to locate. The plants are very sparsely scattered among other algae and debris. Thus it has been impossible to learn much of their life history. What little is known, however, is so distinct from any known genus that it becomes necessary to create a new genus for their reception. I am placing it provisionally in the family Chroococcaceae, seemingly approaching the simplest members of the Oscillatoriaceae. The cells divide by fission and are soon separated completely by a thick, firm gelatinous membrane or tegument, continuous with the general enclosing tegument.
Nothing is known of the method of reproduction, but probably it is by the dissolution of the tegument, freeing the individual cells, as in other Chroococcaceae, these again evolving new filaments.