Botanical atlas

Scenedesmus

Scenedesmus obliquus

Scenedesmus obliquus does not carry centuries of kitchen-garden or apothecary lore the way lavender or chamomile do. Its story belongs to the laboratory rather than to folk tradition, beginning in the 1950s when European researchers started mass-culturing this fast-growing green alga in open outdoor ponds, drawn to its rapid growth and unusually high protein content at a time when feeding a hungry, rebuilding world felt urgent. That early work helped launch the modern field of microalgae cultivation, and Scenedesmus has remained a workhorse research species ever since, studied for its protein, its pigments, and more recently its promise as a feedstock for biofuel. Today it lives mostly in laboratories, aquaculture feed systems, and a small corner of the algae-supplement market, rather than in a traditional herbalist's cabinet.

Safety.

Scenedesmus itself is not known to be toxic, but it should never be gathered from the wild since it often grows alongside cyanobacteria that produce serious toxins and the two look alike. Only use commercially cultivated, purity-tested products.