Tolypothrix Kützing ex Bornet et Flahault
	From Greek tolype, "ball of yarn" + thrix, hair"
Tolypothrix filaments form wooly mats.     Close-up of single false branching. The cells diverge from the main filament to form the branch.     ~View a movie showing double-false branching~	The uniseriate trichomes of Tolypothrix are composed of cells that are long and cylindrical or short and barrel-shaped. The cells are blue-green, olive green, yellow, or red in color and sometimes have granules. The filaments are covered by mucilage that varies in thickness and form wooly mats or tufts of filaments that are grayish blue- green, yellowish, or brownish in color. Young filaments are long with heterocysts at the base and free apical ends. The heterocysts are spherical, cylindrical, or discoid in shape, and have 1-2 pores at their base. Akinetes are rarely observed.     Tolypothrix forms single false branches when the filament on one side of the heterocyst continues to grow but the other side does not. The frequent false branching makes the clumps of filaments look like wooly hair. Double false branching occasionally forms if both ends of the interrupted filament continue to grow. These forms are very similar to Scytonema, so some researchers think that the two genera should in fact be merged.