Draparnaldiopsis krishnamurthyi M. Baluswami & M. Rajasekaran 2000


Division     Chlorophyta
Class     Chlorophyceae
Order     Chaetophorales
Family    Chaetophoraceae

    Thalli bright green in colour, short, grows up to 3 cm in height; solitary or in tufts of a few erect filaments arising from basal prostrate filaments; thalli attached by uniseriate, multicellular rhizoids, thallus covered by thin mucilage. Erect filaments composed of main axis and laterals, 209-950 µm in width excluding hairs towards the middle region, 60-300 µm in width towards the middle region and 60-330 µm in width towards their lower region. Cells of the main axis, slightly constricted at their cross walls, differentiated into larger internodal and smaller nodal cells. Internodal cells are 30-60 µm long and 14-30 µm broad; nodal cells are 10-25 µm long and 12-30 µm broad.


    Nodal and internodal cells of the main axis usually alternating. Branches are of two kinds, determinate and indeterminate, produced from the mature axis. Determinate branches produced from successive nodal cells, usually in whorls of four and rarely in pairs. Indeterminate branches produced occasionally in place of a determinate branch and repeat the structure of the main axis. Cells of the distal region on main axis measure 7-23 µm in length and 6.5-22 µm in width. Determinate branches consisting of a cuneiform basal cell with 2-6 orders of branches, of 2-5 cells each, sometimes forming spherical glomerulus, often ending in elongate, hyaline hairs. Cells of determinate branches measure 6-36 µm in length and 3.5-12 µm in width. Hairs projecting beyond the width of the thallus.


Ecology

Lithophytic and occurs in oligo-mesotrophic water bodies.


Distribution in India

Kambakkam, Andhra Pradesh.