Mastigocladus Cohn ex Kirchner (1898: 81)

Mcgregor, Glenn B., 2018, Freshwater Cyanobacteria of North-Eastern Australia: 3. Nostocales, Phytotaxa 359 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Mastigocladus Cohn ex Kirchner (1898: 81)

Type: M. laminosus Cohn ex Kirchner (1898: 39)

Thallus a soft, spongy mat, sometimes embedded with calcite crystals, smooth or gelatinous on the surface, to compact, occasionally layered, blue-green or olive-green in colour, composed of densely tangled filaments. Trichomes uniseriate, irregularly coiled, with thin, distinct, colourless sheaths, diffluent in old stages; true branching of T- or reverse Y-type, often unilateral, in some stages branching is rare or almost absent; branches usually continually tapering to the ends. Heterocytes intercalary, solitary or rarely in pairs. Akinetes uncommon, solitary in mature parts of the trichome. Cells divide crosswise or lengthwise before branching. Reproduction by hormogonia or by dissociation of trichomes.

Mastigocladus currently contains one species, M. laminosus , a true branching taxon from thermal springs. Bibliography: Castenholz (1996), Miller et al. (2006, 2007), Kaštovský & Johansen (2008).