Microcystisn.
/ˌmʌɪkrə(ʊ)ˈsɪstɪs/, U.S. /ˈmaɪkroʊˌsɪstɪs/ Botany.
A genus of colony-forming cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) (order Chroococcales), some species of which produce toxic blooms in fresh water; (also microcystis) a member of this genus.
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1879 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 6 282 Microcystis Ktz... The forms recognized under Microcystis [printed Microcysts] are not unfrequently earlier stages in the growth of some filamentous algae.
1882 M. C. Cooke Brit. Fresh-water Algae I. 211 Microcystis, Kutz. (1833.) Cells sphærical, numerous, densely aggregated.
1909 Science 5 Nov. 647/1 Quantitatively this group [sc. the Myxophyceæ] was not so important as some of the others, owing to the small size of its most numerous member, Microcystis.
1923 New Phytologist 22 61 Ostenfeld..argues the identity of all the pseudovacuole-containing species of Microcystis.
1967 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. 5 222 This Nostoc is absent in the Atlantic proper where the only Myxophyceae recorded are the ‘olive green cells’ of Hentschel which are Microcystis, principally found in deep water.
1989 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 2/4 The ‘bloom’ of blue-green microcystis algae..is widely believed to have been the reason for the death of 10 dogs and several sheep.
1990 C. Rose Dirty Man of Europe (1991) (Nexis) iii. 86 The cause was microcystis, a type of blue-green alga which produces microcystin, a toxin to both people and animals.
1996 Ecology 77 1568/2 Benthic recruitment, which is important for many cyanobacteria and especially Microcystis..would only be possible in the shallow enclosures.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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