Abstract
Schmidleinema is a monotypic genus in the family Fischerellaceae (Cyanobacteria / Cyanoprokaryota) with S. indicum is the sole species described so far. Due to its rare occurrence and reported only from a tropical climatic region, the taxon was not thoroughly studied, thus its taxonomic position is ubiquitous. No molecular data of the species is available so far. While studying the aero-terrestrial cyanobacterial flora of Santiniketan, West Bengal (India), a new Schmidleinema species, i.e. Schmidleinema santiniketanense sp. nov. was documented. Light microscopic study of morphological characters of the species revealed its distinctness from the earlier descriptions of Schmidleinema indicum, particularly in the characteristics of sheath and branching pattern. Partial sequence of 16S rRNA gene of the species was obtained and deposited in GenBank for the first time. A consensus tree prepared with sequences of different groups of heterocystous and branched cyanobacteria retrieved from GenBank showed its phylogenetic position.