Diverse Algae Specimens

[EthanBCW]

I went for a walk to a pond today, and brought a couple of jars along with me. After filling up the jars from various parts of the pond, I headed home to look at some of the water under the microscope. To my surprise, in the very first drop of water I placed on the slide I found many beautiful and different algae cells. A few of them I recognize - a Synura Colony, a Desmid or two - and a couple were ones I'd never seen before! My favourite of them all is definitely the star shaped one. I just felt like sharing the images since I think they look pretty cool.
P.S. I know this is not the right section of the forum, but does anyone know what the star shaped alga is? It's really cute but I can't find images online of it. "Star shaped algae" in Google just returns images of Pediastrum, which I am pretty sure it isn't.

[75RR]

.
Look up Desmids

[MichaelG.]

My favourite of them all is definitely the star shaped one.

Agreed !!

MichaelG.

[smollerthings]

Beautiful!

[tlansing]

There is an excellent website for identifying desmids, with lots of pictures: http://www.digicodes.info/index.html

[75RR]

.
Staurastrum sp. is about as near an ID as you are likely to get - though in this French forum there are some suggestions.

Staurastrum gracile var nanum looks promising

https://forum.mikroscopia.com/topic/280 ... m-arachne/

[EthanBCW]

Today I did some more 'research' about Staurastrum, and I think that the star is either Staurastrum Asteroideum or Staurastrum Incisum. Also I appreciate all the kind feedback