Echinostelium is a genus of slime mould, and the only genus in the monotypic family Echinosteliaceae,[1] or Echinosteliidae.[2] It was discovered by Heinrich Anton de Bary in 1855, apparently near Frankfurt am Main.[3] Some species of Echinostelium have a sexual life cycle; others have been shown to be asexual.[4] The plasmodium can divide vegetatively, in a process called plasmotomy, to distinguish it from true cell division.[5]
Species
The genus Echinostelium comprises at least five species:[6]
^Constantine J. Alexopoulos & T. E. Brooks (1971). "Taxonomic studies in the Myxomycetes. III. Clastodermataceae: a new family of the Echinosteliales". Mycologia. 63 (4): 925–928. doi:10.2307/3758063. JSTOR3758063.