SEM study of compound oospore wall ornamentation of some members of Charales from Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia

Abstract

The outermost layer of the oospore wall of the members of Chorales shows various ornamentation patterns, formed due to differential deposition of wall material. These ornamentations are very conservative in nature and used as taxonomic criteria in identifying species and intraspecies taxa in Chorales. In the present investigation, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to study the compound oospore wall ornamentations of twelve species belonging to the genera Chara, Nitella, Lamprothamnium and Lychnothamnus from Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia. The taxonomic identification and systematic position of these taxa are discussed in the light of these characteristic ornamentation patterns revealed by SEM.