Zygnema is a genus of freshwater filamentous thalloid alga comprising about 100 species.[2] A terrestrial species, Z. terrestre, is known from India. Zygnema grows as a free-floating mass of filaments, although young plants may be found anchored to streambeds with a holdfast. The filaments form a yellow-green to bright green colored tangled mat, and are composed of elongate barrel-shaped cells, each with two star-shaped chloroplasts arrayed one after the other along the axis of the cell.