• Trichodesmium erythraeum: Ehrenberg C.G. (1830)
• Trichodesmium ehrenbergii: Montagne (1844)
• Oscillaria erythraea : (Ehrenberg) Geitler (1932), (Ehrenberg) Kützing (1843)

Filamentous alga, red or olive-green in colour. The trichomes are joined in floating bundles that can reach 1 mm in length with both extremities thread-like, although larger trichomes have capitate extremities. The internal cells of the trichomes are cylindrical, longer than they are wide. 60-70% of the cellular cytoplasm is occupied by vesicles full of gas, which play an important role in floating. In addition, they are arranged so that their longitudinal axis is perpendicular to the direction of the filament.

Marine species.

Distribution: as Trichodesmium erythraeum (Ehrenberg): in Europe: Great Britain (Whitton et al., 2003); in Africa: Egypt (Papenfuss, 1968); in Indian Ocean: Aldabra Islands (Silva, Basson and Moe, 1996); in South Asia: India (Silva, Basson and Moe, 1996), Israel (Papenfuss, 1968), Turkey (Taskin et al., 2008); Australia and New Zealand: Australia (Day et al., 1995), New Zealand (Broady and Merican, 2012).

As Oscillaria erythraea (Ehrenberg) Kützing) in Europe: Italy (Furnari et al., 2003); North America: Florida (Dawes, 1974).

As Trichodesmium erythraeum (Ehrenberg ex Gomont) in North America: North Carolina (Garcia et al., 2011); Australia and New Zealand: Queensland (Garcia et al., 2011).

As Oscillatoria erythraea (Ehrenberg) Geitler; in North America: Virginia (Humm, 1979).

A coded list of freshwater algae of the British Isles., LOIS Publication number 222. Wallingford: Institute of Hydrology & NERC., Whitton B.A., John D.M., Johnson L.R., Boulton P.N.G., Kelly M.G. e Haworth, E.Y., 1998, 1-274

Bibliographic check-list of non-marine algae in Australia., Flora of Australia Supplementary Series 4, Day S.A., Wickham R.P., Entwisle T.J., Tyler P.A., 1995, 1-276

Catalogue of the benthic marine algae of the Indian Ocean., University of California Publications in Botany 79:, Silva P.C., Basson P.W., Moe R.L., 1996, 1-1259

Monographie des Oscillariées (Nostocacées homocystées)., Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, Series 7 16:, Gomont M., 1892, 91-264

A history, catalogue, and bibliography of the Red Sea benthic algae., Israel Journal of Botany 17:, Papenfuss G.F., 1968, 1-118

The check-list of the marine algae of Turkey., Manisa, Turkey: Ecem Kirtasiye., Taskin E., Öztürk M., Kurt O., Öztürk M., 2008, 1-87

Phylum Cyanobacteria: blue-green bacteria, blue-green algae. In: New Zealand inventory of biodiversity., Volume Three. Kingdoms Bacteria, Protozoa, Chromista, Plantae, Fungi. (Gordon, D.P. Eds), Christchurch: Canterbury University Press., Broady P.A., Merican F., 2012, 50-69

Biodiversità marina delle coste italiane: catalogo del macrofitobenthos., Biologia Marina Mediterranea 10(1):, Furnari G., Giaccone G., Cormaci M., Alongi G., Serio D., 2003, 1-482

Marine algae of the west coast of Florida., Coral Gables, Florida: Univ. of Miami Press., Dawes C.J., 1974, 1-201

The marine algae of Virginia., Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia., Humm H.J., 1979, 1-263

Interactive effects of irradiance and CO2 on CO2 fixation and N2 in the diazotroph Trichodesmium erythraeum (cyanobacteria)., Journal of Phycology 47(6):, Garcia N.S., Fu F.-X., Breene C.L., Bernhardt P.W., Mulholland M.R., Sohm J.A., Hutchins D.A., 2011, 1292-1303