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Westella
Genus of algae From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Westella is a genus of green algae in the family Scenedesmaceae, containing the sole species Westella botryoides.[1] The species has a cosmopolitan distribution[2] and is planktonic in freshwater rivers and ponds.[1]
Westella botryoides consists of four-celled colonies (termed coenobia) up to 15 μm; these in turn may be joined to form compound colonies consisting of over a hundred cells and reaching up to 90 μm, attached to each other by the remnants of their parental cell walls.[2] The four cells are typically arranged in a square,[3] spherical but flattened when in contact with other cells. The cell walls are smooth; cells are uninucleate with a single, parietal chloroplast containing one pyrenoid.[1]
Two similar genera are Westellopsis and Coccoidesmus. Westellopsis differs in having chloroplasts without pyrenoids[2] and usually cells arranged in a line, while Coccoidesmus has cells arranged in a tetrahedral formation.[3]
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