Survey of the botanical Phyla
Bacillariophyta ![[audio pronunciation]](../sounds/speaker.gif)
General features of the heterokonts
Common name
Diatoms
Synonyms
Chrysophyta (in part)
Mode of nutrition
Autotrophic: brown chloroplasts
Habitat
Marine, freshwater, rarely moist terrestrial
Growth habit
Unicellular, filamentous
Cell wall
Silica, cellulose
Undulipodia (“flagella”)
One tinsel, on sperm cells of one Class; otherwise none.
Food storage
Lipid
Clonal reproduction
Mitosis of unicells
Sexual reproduction
Diploid-dominant, oogamous
Representative genera
Recognized by
“Glassy” cell walls with precise pores and sculpturing