Original paper
A SEM study of the oospore wall ornamentation in Polish charophytes (Charales, Charophyceae) - genera Lychnothamnus, Nitella and Nitellopsis
Urbaniak, Jacek
published: 11/1/2011
DOI: 10.1127/0029-5035/2011/0093-0537
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ArtNo.: ESP050009303017
Abstract
The taxonomic importance of oospore characters has long been recognized. Many authors believed such oospore characters to be constant and characteristic for each species and associated with the morphological characters that are useful taxonomically. The ornamentation can be helpful in taxonomy, if oospore ornamentation characters are conservative in nature, which is more common in the genus Nitella than in Chara. In the present investigation scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the oospore wall ornamentations of all species from the three genera: Lychnothamnus, Nitella and Nitellopsis that can be found in Poland. Based on new findings and other investigations of the oospore wall ornamentation, taxonomic problems concerning many of the investigated species are discussed.
Keywords
charophyta • characeae • lychnothamnus • nitella • nitellopsis • oospore • ultrastructure • wall • morphology • characters • poland