Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or

appendage An appendage (or outgrowth) is an external body part, or natural prolongation, that protrudes from an organism's body. In arthropods, an appendage refers to any of the homologous body parts that may extend from a body segment, including ante ...

s on

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae excl ...

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular micr ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.protist A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the e ...

s. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant is an indumentum, and the surface bearing them is said to be pubescent.

Algal trichomes

Certain, usually filamentous,

have the terminal cell produced into an elongate hair-like structure called a trichome. The same term is applied to such structures in some

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, bl ...

, such as '' Spirulina'' and '' Oscillatoria''. The trichomes of cyanobacteria may be unsheathed, as in ''Oscillatoria'', or sheathed, as in '' Calothrix''. These structures play an important role in preventing soil

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

, particularly in cold

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

s. The filamentous sheaths form a persistent sticky network that helps maintain soil structure.

Plant trichomes

Plant trichomes have many different features that vary between both species of plants and organs of an individual plant. These features affect the subcategories that trichomes are placed into. Some defining features include the following: * Unicellular or multicellular * Straight (upright with little to no branching), spiral (corkscrew-shaped) or hooked (curved apex) * Presence of cytoplasm * Glandular (secretory) vs. eglandular * Tortuous, simple (unbranched and unicellular), peltate (scale-like), stellate (star-shaped) * Adaxial vs.

abaxial {{Short pages monitor