Desmid of the month
July 2020

Staurastrum hirsutum

 St. hirsutum is a triradiate, spinous Staurastrum species that somewhat resembles St. brebissonii  but differs in having relatively longer cells and semicells that are trapeziform instead of elliptic-rhomboid. Moreover the two species differ in ecology. Where St. brebissonii is characteristic of various mesotrophic, circumneutral to slightly acidic habitats, St. hirsutum is mainly encountered in oligotrophic, distinctly acidic bog pools. In the Netherlands, St. hirsutum is rather widely distributed in the eastern and southern part of the country.