Algae: Need help in identifying species and structures!!

Sep 22, 2019 • 9:33 AM UTC

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MananSuri

My name is Manan. I am a student from New Delhi, India. I like to explore the world around me, and foldscope acts like a gateway for me to delve into the microcosmos. Always open to learning new things, meeting new people and and having new memories.

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For a few months, I’ve been taking samples from a lotus pond near my home. The first striking observation is the presence of algae in the water, and invariably whichever slide I made contained some or the other algal filaments. I decided therefore to study the algae a little bit too. I started with this in my months old post (
https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=159215 ).
But as I observed the algae, I became curious about certain structures I saw.
The following piece of algae had many such filaments of different types with these ‘vine glass’ shaped protrusions. I am curious as to what they are… They seemed too small to be vorticellae, and since I didn’t observe a lot of movement I’m not sure, and I would love if anyone can help me out.

fig.1

fig.2 A few of these were quite unique with having two branches… are these dividing cells? Apart from the vine glass shaped outgrowths, there were many other observable outgrowths in different samples, which i would love to identify.

fig.3

fig.4

fig.5

fig.6 I also saw many algae which were dense with hair like structures.Several of them had swollen ends as shown below. Again, I would really appreciate if I can know what both these structures represent and what role they play.

fig.7 I further found that several of the filaments had randomly present darkened cells, which I think might be akinetes and the algae may be pithophora ( which I found some similarities to with the description on
https://www.sepro.com/stewards-of-water/archive/algae-corner-how-to-identify-different-algae-types ).

fig.8: also, many filaments had parts of them empty of chloroplasts: why is that?

I also saw a bursting cell, which had all of its content oozing out of it, with the filament being twisted at that point. Why does that take place?
Is the following algae a phaecophycae?

fig.9 Some of the algae had strange shapes, like this one below was almost as if it had swollen up!

fig.10 Working with algae was quite fun. I’m quite inquisitive about what structures were viewed by me, as the simplicity, yet diversity of the samples observed have left me in awe.
Also, I have found with experience, that whenever attempting to make water slides, it is better to have a little algae within the slide, as:
Several organisms hide themselves within these multitudinous folds! The slide itself becomes better mechanically, as there is some cushioning which prevents unknown/known samples from getting crushed, and somehow has always mitigated large air-bubbles for me! Manan 🙂
Edit:
Thank you so much @laksiyer for helping me out with several of these. Your guidance to amateur foldscopers like me encourages us to explore further.
In reference to the wine glass structures which may be diatoms, here is a clearer picture: