Protococcus

noun

Pro·​to·​coc·​cus

: a genus of unicellular globose chiefly terrestrial green algae (family Protococcaceae) that in former classifications included most such aerial algae but is now usually restricted to forms with a single large peripheral cloroplast that divide in two planes to form thin filmy colonies (as on damp rocks or the bark of trees) compare chlorococcum

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from prot- + -coccus

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