#polysiphonia

[pulsethebabyoctopus]

[rudebisco]

look at this this Polysiphonia sp., she's soooo beautiful!

this this the female gametophyte - the vase-like structures coming off the branches are the cystocarps. inside, you can see the carposporangia - these are part of the carposporophyte, which is the first of two "free living" diploid stages in the red algal life cycle (after fertilization, the zygote stays attached to the female gametophyte, and is nourished by her as it grows). when the carpospores are released, they'll germinate and grow into the actually-free-living diploid stage, the tetrasporophyte

[fire-dawn]

Have I posted algae pictures before? Perhaps not. Anyway... have some Polysiphonia pics. If you're not already aware, I'm fascinated by phycology

[1311133]

Polysiphonia (phylum Rhodophyta, classis Florideophyceae, ordo Ceramiales)