Oscillatoria
Oscillatoria is a genus of filamentous cyanobacteria. It is often found in freshwater environments. Its name refers to the oscillating motion of its filaments as they slide against each other to position the colony to face a light source. Oscillatoria uses photosynthesis to survive and reproduce. Each filament of Oscillatoria consists of a row of cells called a trichome. The tip of the trichome oscillates like a pendulum.
Reproduction takes place asexually by fragmentation. Usually the filament breaks into a number of fragments called hormogonia. Each hormogonium consist of one or more cells and grows into a filament by cell division in one direction. Hormogonia has capacity for locomotion.
32 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Oscillatoria princeps
speciesOscillatoria princeps
Oscillatoria limosa
speciesOscillatoria limosa
Oscillatoria kawamurae
speciesOscillatoria kawamurae
Oscillatoria sancta
speciesOscillatoria sancta
Oscillatoria margaritifera
speciesOscillatoria margaritifera
Oscillatoria anguina
speciesOscillatoria anguina
Oscillatoria major
speciesOscillatoria major
Oscillatoria nigro-viridis
speciesOscillatoria nigro-viridis
Oscillatoria granulata
speciesOscillatoria granulata
Oscillatoria borneti
speciesOscillatoria borneti
Oscillatoria simplicissima
speciesOscillatoria simplicissima
Oscillatoria circinata
speciesOscillatoria circinata
Oscillatoria laete-virens
speciesOscillatoria laete-virens
Oscillatoria breviarticulata
speciesOscillatoria breviarticulata
Oscillatoria angusta
speciesOscillatoria angusta
Oscillatoria acus
speciesOscillatoria acus
Oscillatoria guttulata
speciesOscillatoria guttulata
Oscillatoria subbrevis
speciesOscillatoria subbrevis
Oscillatoria raoi
speciesOscillatoria raoi
Oscillatoria obtusa
speciesOscillatoria obtusa
Oscillatoria obscura
speciesOscillatoria obscura
Oscillatoria mougeotii
speciesOscillatoria mougeotii
Oscillatoria miniata
speciesOscillatoria miniata
Oscillatoria subformosa
speciesOscillatoria subformosa
Oscillatoria vizagapatensis
speciesOscillatoria vizagapatensis
Oscillatoria refringens
speciesOscillatoria refringens
Oscillatoria leavittae
speciesOscillatoria leavittae
Oscillatoria umbrosa
speciesOscillatoria umbrosa
Oscillatoria gigantea
speciesOscillatoria gigantea
Oscillatoria proboscidea
speciesOscillatoria proboscidea
Oscillatoria annae
speciesOscillatoria annae
Oscillatoria bonnemaisonii
speciesOscillatoria bonnemaisonii
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Oscillatoria in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 324242.