{{Short description|Genus of algae}} {{Speciesbox | image = Marthea tetras fig 1-8 combined.JPG | image_caption = ''Marthea tetras'' | genus = Marthea | parent_authority = Pascher, 1918 | species = tetras | authority = Pascher, 1918<ref name="Algaebase">{{AlgaeBase genus | id=47396 | name=Marthea | access-date=2023-10-14}}</ref> }}
'''''Marthea''''' is a genus of green algae in the family Characiaceae, containing the single species '''''Marthea tetras'''''.<ref name="Algaebase"/> It is an extremely rare genus; it has only been recorded once,<ref name="Algaebase"/> as freshwater phytoplankton from its original locality in the Bohemian Forest region of the Czech Republic.<ref>{{cite book | title= Chlorophyceae (Grünalgen), Ordnung Chlorococcales | last1=Komárek | first1=J. | last2=Fott | first2=B. | date=1983 | publisher= E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung | series=Das Phytoplankton des Süßwassers | language=de| page=1044 }}</ref>
''Marthea tetras'' consists of cells in colonies of four in a cross shape. Cells are spindle-shaped, with the base attached to a central mass of mucilage, while the apex of the cells are pointed. The cell wall is smooth. Cells contain one nucleus and a single, parietal chloroplast with one pyrenoid.<ref name="Algaebase"/>
''Marthea'' reproduces asexually by autospores.<ref name="Algaebase"/> Four autospores form from one protoplast. Unusually, the autospores show amoeboid movement for some time, before settling in their usual shape and being released from the sporangium.<ref>{{cite book | title=Chlorococcales | last=Philipose | first=M. T. | page= 365 | publisher= Indian Council of Agricultural Research | series=Monographs on algae|volume=8 | location=New Delhi | year= 1967}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q6774653}}
Category:Sphaeropleales genera Category:Sphaeropleales Category:Freshwater algae {{Chlorophyceae-stub}}