Charophyceae is a
class of
charophyte
Charophyta () is a group of freshwater green algae, called charophytes (), sometimes treated as a division, yet also as a superdivision or an unranked clade. The terrestrial plants, the Embryophyta emerged within Charophyta, possibly from terre ...
green algae.
AlgaeBase
AlgaeBase is a global species database of information on all groups of algae, both marine and freshwater, as well as sea-grass.
History
AlgaeBase began in March 1996, founded by Michael Guiry. Text was copied from this source, which is avail ...
places it in division Charophyta.
Extant (living) species are placed in a single order
Charales
Charales is an order of freshwater green algae in the division Charophyta, class Charophyceae, commonly known as stoneworts. Depending on the treatment of the genus '' Nitellopsis'', living (extant) species are placed into either one family (Ch ...
, commonly known as "stoneworts" and "brittleworts". Fossil members of the class may be placed in separate orders, e.g.
Sycidiales and
Trochiliscales
Trochiliscaceae is a family of fossil charophyte green algae. It is the only member of the order Trochiliscales. The reproductive structures in Trochiliscaceae (and families placed in Sycidiales by AlgaeBase) have a calcified cover, called a ''utr ...
.
[
Charophyceae is basal in the ]Phragmoplastophyta
The Phragmoplastophyta (Lecointre & Guyader 2006) are a proposed sister clade of the Klebsormidiaceae in the Streptophyte/Charophyte clade. The Phragmoplastophyta consist of the Charophycaea and another unnamed clade which contains the Coleocha ...
clade which contains the embryophyte
The Embryophyta (), or land plants, are the most familiar group of green plants that comprise vegetation on Earth. Embryophytes () have a common ancestor with green algae, having emerged within the Phragmoplastophyta clade of green algae as si ...
s (land plants).[Hoek, C. van den, Mann, D. G. & Jahns, H. M. 1995]
''Algae: An Introduction to Phycology''
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [McCourt, R. M., Chapman, R. L., Buchheim, M. & Mishler, B. D]
“Green Plants”
Accessed 13 December 2007 In 2018, the first nuclear genome sequence from a species belonging to the Charophyceae was published: that of ''Chara braunii
''Chara braunii'' is one of only several ecorticated species of the genus '' Chara'' occurring in Europe and the only species without cortication known from Poland.Jacek Urbaniak, "Distribution of ''Chara braunii'' Gmellin 1826 (''Charophyta'') ...
''.
Description
The thallus is erect with regular nodes and internodes. At each node there is a whorl of branches. The whole plant is calcified and ''Equisetum
''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds.
''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass ...
''-like. The internodes of the main axis consist of a single elongated cell, in '' Chara'' the internodes are