Welcome to You Ask Andy

Alfred W, Burnett, Jr., age 12, Mapleton, Illinois, for his question:

Are ‑algae plants or minerals?

A mineral is a chemical or a blend. of chemicals which is riot made by a plant or animal. Gold and granite are minerals. An organic substance is also a chemical or a blend of chemicals. But it was made by a living plant or animal. Wood and bone are organic substances. Hence, a mineral is an inorganic substance: And algae are very much alive. In facts they were the first living things to inhabit the world.

The first living things were tiny algae, very like the tiny algae that still float in the oceans, the rivers, lakes and streams all over the world. They were one‑celled plants, most of them too small for our eyes to see. The tiny plants contained protoplasm, the magic fluid from which all life begins. They also contained chlorophyll. This they used to make plant food from gases, water and sunlight. The single cells grew fat and multiplied by dividing into pairs. Simply little algae plants still teem in all fresh and salt waters,

In time, some of the simple algae improved. Clusters of cells stayed together instead of going their separate ways. The; formed colonies of floating scum. The green scum on ponds is such a. colony of alga cells. In some cases, a colony of algae learned to anchor itself at one end to the floor of the ocean or to a rock near the shore.

Most of our seaweed.s are really colonies of alga cells. The kelp looks like leafy streamers rooted to the ocean floor. The sea lettuce looks like green leaves of crimped ribbon. Floats of sargassum seaweed in the mid‑Atlantic look like tangled foliage. But actually, the algae have no true leaves, stems or root systems. There is no division of labor as in a tre,; in which some cells carry water, some hold up the leaves and others male plant food.. The algae must therefore live where moisture reaches all the cells,

Certain algae, however, did learn to live: on the land. Fungus plants are able to  are able to hold moisture in their tissues but unable to make plant food from sunshine. These algae are teamed up with small fungus plants to make the lichens.

The algae family is classed according to its coloring. All algae contain green, chlorophyll. But sometimes the green is masked by other colors. Most fresh water algae are green. Others are the blue green algae. Many seaweeds are brown algae. They may be any color from yellow, through olive green to dark brown. There are also red algae. The Red Sea gets its rosy tones from countless little red algae that float in its waters.

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