Nitella leptosoma Charophyte

 

This is a drawing of an oogonium of the algae Nitella leptosoma (Nordstedt, 1880). It was from plate 3 of the book Australasian characeae by Otto Nordstedt Part 1 1891. The habitat of this plant is in bogs at Omatangi, near Tampo, New Zealand (about 600-900 meters above sea level).

Otto Nordstedt (1838-1924) was a Swedish botanist who obtained a medical degree from Lund University and later became a botanist specializing in algology. He became a professor at Lund University and retired at the age of 84. The book I scanned the above images from belonged to Dr. James Conkin (1924-2017) who was professor at the University of Louisville and studied charophyte fossils. At a recent geology meeting after giving a presentation about the Louisville fossil collectors Henry Nettelroth and Dr. James Knapp, his daughter presented this book to me. Below is image of what appears to be a Harrisichara (Grambast, 1957) charophyte fossil found by Dr. Conkin at Isle of Wright off the coast of England. See full posting about at this link.