Much recent attention has been focused on vegetative survival forms of planktonic diatoms and other algae. There are several reports of extended vegetative survival of the freshwater diatom Melosira in lake sediments. In contrast to those diatoms which form a morphologically distinct resistant spore, Melosira is known to produce physiological resting cells that are indistinguishable in outward morphology from actively growing cells.We used both light and electron microscopy to document and elucidate the sequence of cytological changes during the transition from resting cells to actively growing cells in a population of Melosira granulata from Douglas Lake, Michigan sediments collected in mid-July of 1983.