Desmid of the month
September 2010

Docidium undulatum

Like Docidium baculum D. undulatum is characterized by a whorl of short, longitudinal cell wall plications on either side of the isthmus. Most remarkable feature, however, is the strong undulation of the cell outline enabling ready identification. Within Europe, D. undulatum is particularly distributed in peat bogs situated in the westernmost Atlantic regions, elsewhere it is (very) rare. In the Netherlands only a few records are known from some oligotrophic bog pools dating from the first half of the 20th century.