Types of Alage - Diatoms

Diatoms (Bacillariophyta)

These yellow to light brown plants live within a glass like cell walls made from silica. Some look like jewels, others like spaceships. Diatoms are widely distributed and occur as single cells, colonies, free floating in water, on sediment or attached to aquatic plants, sometimes coating them with brown slime. They can be disbursed by the wind. When they die, they sink to the bottom of

lake, river or ocean floor. Here their empty cell walls

accumulate and form deposits called diatomaceous earth.

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