Filaments are worm-like and may be motile by gliding, often with a tapered tip; chloroplasts and other organelles inside cells are not fo...
Filaments composed of regular cells occasionally interrupted by specialised cells (heterocytes or akinetes) with thickened walls, that ar...
Filaments are short, usually attached to larger algae; chloroplasts and other organelles not found; cell contents blue-green or paler; ex...
Red-brown, filaments too thin to distinguish cell walls.
Material is whitish brown, like dirty cotton wool; filaments too thin for cell walls to be distinguished.
![[Spirulina] (sewage pond), X400. Photo: Manaaki Whenua](/assets/Tools-And-Resources/Identification/freshwater-invertebrates/spirulina__FillMaxWzMwMCwyMDBd.jpg)
![[Nostoc], upper Taieri River, X16. Photo: Otago Regional Council & Manaaki Whenua](/assets/Tools-And-Resources/Identification/algae/nostoc__FillMaxWzMwMCwyMDBd.jpg)
![[Chamaesiphon], Tokomairiro River, X400. Photo: Otago Regional Council & Manaaki Whenua](/assets/Tools-And-Resources/Identification/algae/chamaesiphon400__FillMaxWzMwMCwyMDBd.jpg)
![[Sphaerotilus] caused by dairy factory waste. Photo: Taranaki Regional Council & Manaaki Whenua](/assets/Tools-And-Resources/Identification/algae/sewagefung3__FillMaxWzMwMCwyMDBd.jpg)