Freshwater Algae in Essex
HILARY BELCHER
23 Pepys Way, Girton, Cambridge CB3 OPA
Unlike many other groups of organisms, freshwater algae are under-recorded, largely due to the lack
of identification literature in English, though the new flora of freshwater algae currently in press
should remedy this to a considerable extent. There is no distribution map scheme, nor are there any
good, recent county lists. I am trying to build up such a list for Essex (and for Cambridgeshire and
Suffolk), and as I live out of the county samples sent to me by post are invaluable. In particular,
material from Epping Forest ponds by Amanda Samuels, ecological surveyor for the Forest, and
previously by Alwyne Whcclcr, have been of great interest, and it is hoped to continue the study of
the Forest pond algae with Amanda's help.
Samples from elsewhere in the county would be welcomed, a small tuft of filamentous algae, or of a
water plant not rinsed, and sent in a tightly closed polythene bag wrapped in a little newspaper, will
generally yield an assortment of diatoms and other algae from the film which usually covers such
plants. Please send them to the address given above.
New Charophyte (Stonewort) and Bryophyte records and corrigenda
KEN ADAMS
School of Biosciences, University of Eas! London E15 4LZ.
Charophytes
The following records have been added to the data base during 2000.
Nitella flexilis/opaca
TL(52)43 464,343 19 Clavering, new fishing lake. 19 August 1999.
Shirley & Charles Watson.
[N.B. N. flexilis senu lato has once more been separated into N.
flexilis sensu stricto and N. opaca (lumped together by J.A.
Moore in 1986) and the author would appreciate receiving living
material of this aggregate to grow on and identify].
Nitella translucens
TQ(51)49 418,984 18 Epping Forest, Wake Valley Pond West, present in huge
quantities throughout the water column, sterile. Many whorls
with very long dactyls, in addition to the normal minute ones.
23 August 2000. Still present in about the same quantity. August
2001. K.J. Adams.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)