Nostoc Information

Scientific name - Kingdom- Monera, Phylum- Cyanobacteria, Class- NA, Order- nostocaler, Family- Nostocaceae, Genus- Nostoc, Species- caeruleum

Description- Nostoc is a one celled autotrophic organism that performs photosynthesis with out chloroplasts. Instead it uses photosynthetic pigments located on folded membranes in their cytoplasm. The Nostoc is given its bluish color from a blue pigment called phycocyanin and its green color from the chlorophyll is surrounded by a membrane cell wall, called an acapsule. The Nostoc contains cytoplasm, which is made of 70% to 85% water.

Habitat -The habitat of a Nostoc is in the ground and on the roots of plants. Plants such as beans and alfalfa are some of these plants.

Life cycle- Nostoc reproduces asexually by binary fission. They divide every 15 to 20 minutes.

Importance - Nostoc is important to farmers because the Nostoc in riches the soil with nitrogen. They do this by capturing nitrogen out of the air, through a process of called nitrogen fixation. The nitrogen is used by plants so the Nostoc act like artificial fertilizer, but not as hurtful or costly.

Bibliography - Stanier, Roger, The Microbial World New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1963.