Peculiarities of Chara filiformis (Charales, Charophyceae) distribution and oospore sizes in Lithuania

ABSTRACT

Distribution and ecological requirements of Chara filiformis A. Braun in Hertzsch in Lithuanian water bodies were studied. This species has quite limited distribution in central and northern Europe, clearly preferring the habitat ‘3140 Hard oligo-mesotrophic waters with benthic vegetation of Chara spp.’. Morphological features of oospores and gyrogonites of C. filiformis were studied based on 50 gyrogonites and 50 oospores taken from herbarium specimens collected from Lake Germantas (55.979279, 22.14266 WGS) at the depth of 2–3 m on 17 August 2000. Largest polar axis (LPA, length), largest equatorial diameter (LED, width), isopolarity index (ISI = LPA/LED × 100) and number of ridges were measured. The comparative analysis revealed that the morphometry of oospores from the studied population significantly differed from most of the data known from the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Characeae
• Chara filiformis
• distribution
• gyrogonites
• oospores
• morphometry

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Vita Monkuvienė and Zigmantas Gudžinskas (Nature Research Centre, Institute of Botany) for compiling the distribution maps and preparation of illustrations. I am grateful to Violeta Ptašekienė for linguistic help. I also acknowledge the Environmental Protection Agency for the data on monitoring of the water bodies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.