Myriotrichia
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| Myriotrichia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Illustration of Myriotrichia clavaeformis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | SAR |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Gyrista |
| Subphylum: | Ochrophytina |
| Class: | Phaeophyceae |
| Order: | Ectocarpales |
| Family: | Chordariaceae |
| Genus: | Myriotrichia Harvey, 1834 |
| Type species | |
| Myriotrichia clavaeformis | |
| Species[1] | |
Myriotrichia is a genus of brown algae.[3]
It forms small, soft, olive-brown tufts on the surface of other plants. Filaments rarely exceed centimetres in length.[4]: 105
It may grow by intercalary growth.[4]: 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.[4]: 105 Dedicated photosynthetic machinery may be entirely absent.[4]: 107
Its life history consists of alternation of phases; it has isogamous gametes, and dioecious gametophytes.[5]
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".[5]
The gametophyte phase only produces gametes when day length is long; with shorter days these too reproduce asexually.[5] This is probably because the plants upon which they are epiphytic only grow in the spring.[6] The gametophyte is filamentous – while the sporophyte bears parenchyma, even though it only reaches around 4 cm (2 in) in length.[5]
The alga has a small genome with approximately 12 chromosomes.[5]
