LAGERHEIMIA-HINDAKII IS THE UNICELLULAR STAGE OF A SCENEDESMUS

Extensive variability in spine number and position was emphasized in the protologue for the spiny unicell Lager-heimia hindakii Hegew. et A. Schmidt. Using an axenic clone established from culture Hindak 1975/95, which provided the type material of that organism, we initiated a morphogenetic study. While in the unicellular stage, three short spines were usually formed at each cell pole. A colonial morph was first observed during the initial isolation procedure after unicells were dispersed on firm agar and allowed to grow. We propose that L. hindakii is a Scenedesmus, close to S. subspicatus R. Chod. This organism is unlike most representatives of the genus Scenedesmus because colonies do not readily appear in dilute media; they also fail to form in Brisol's liquid medium unless there is an organic supplement, e.g. glucose. Hindak 1975/95 may be more closely related to truly unicellular taxa than to other Scenedesmus.