Quote Originally Posted by chem geek View Post
Pollen vs. algae is VERY easy to distinguish under a microscope. This link shows light microscope pictures of a variety of pollens. Notice that they all have a somewhat solid appearance, are usually round (though not always), sometimes have spikes. This site has lots of pictures of algae which you can see usually have oblong (more rectangular) cell shapes, are more translucent, often form clusters or filaments, etc.

Common mustard algae is Pleurochloris pyrenoidosa. Common green algae is Oocystis sp. Common black algae is Phormidium minnesotense. You can also search on the web for more pictures of these particular algae.

Richard


Doing some searching on Pleurochloris pyrenoidosa I found this article this article on this yellow algae. I couldn't attach a copy of the common mustard algae picture from that article, I'll post the picture over at TFP.

Also...anything in particular to prepare the samples on the slides?




thanks,
dan