[2] This genera is cosmopolitan, found in soils, thermal springs[1] and other benthic, freshwater, marine, hypersaline, and moist terrestrial environments.

[2] Morphology can vary,[3] with both microscopic and macroscopic colonies large enough to be collected and preserved in herbarium records.

[2] The formerly combined genera Aphanothece and Anathece can be differentiated by the size of cells, ecology and colony morphology.

Aphanothece species occupy a broader range of microhabitats that can be planktonic, subaerophytic, metaphytic, epipelic, or benthic.

[5] In oil industry waste water, 40 species of algae including Aphanothece were observed to be growing in this environment by using organic molecules as nutrients in the summer and winter months.