1. Occurrence: They are largely aquatic, either free floating (plankton) or attached (benthos). They occur in other habitats like moist stones, soil, wood etc. Some of them occur in association with fungi (e.g. lichen) & animals (e.g. on the fur of sloth bear). On the basis of habitat, algae are of flowing types: 2. Thallus organization: The algal plant body [...]
The term Algae (L. alga- sea weed) is collectively used for all the Chlorophyll bearing nonvascular thalloid organisms. Linnaeus (1754) first coined the term algae, which he placed along with Liverworts & lichen under class Cryptogamia of Conventional Plant-Kingdom. But, in Whittaker's classification, all members of algae are redistributed in three kingdoms i.e. Monera (Blue Green Algae), Protista (Diatoms, Dinoflagellates, [...]
The whole range of the somatic structure of algae may be divided into following important type! 1. The motile type. 2. Palmelloid and dendroid types. 3. Coccoid forms. 4. Filamentous habit. 5. Siphonous habit. 6. Advanced type. Image Courtesy : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Salton_Sea_-_algae_covered_rocks_on_lakeshore.JPG 1. The motile type: The simplest type of body is motile and unicellular. The shape varies from [...]
