Chlorophyta
| Chlorophyta | |
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| "Siphoneae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| (unranked): | Archaeplastida |
| Kingdom: | Viridiplantae |
| Division: |
Chlorophyta Reichenbach, 1828, emend. Pascher, 1914, emend. Lewis & McCourt, 2004 |
| Classes | |
| Synonyms | |
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Chlorophyta is a division of green algae, informally called chlorophytes. The name is used in two very different senses, so care is needed to determine the use by a particular author. In older classification systems, it refers to a highly paraphyletic group of all the green algae within the green plants (Viridiplantae) and thus includes about 7,000 species of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. In newer classifications, it refers to one of the two clades making up the Viridiplantae, which are the chlorophytes and the streptophytes. The clade Streptophyta consists of two divisions, the Charophyta and the Embryophyta. In this sense the Chlorophyta includes only about 4,300 species. Like the land plants (bryophytes and tracheophytes), green algae contain chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b and store food as starch in their plastids.
The division contains both unicellular and multicellular species. Some conduct sexual reproduction, which is oogamous or isogamous. All members of the clade have motile flagellated swimming cells. While most species live in freshwater habitats and a large number in marine habitats, other species are adapted to a wide range of land environments. For example, Chlamydomonas nivalis, which causes Watermelon snow, lives on summer alpine snowfields. Others, such as Trentepohlia species, live attached to rocks or woody parts of trees. Monostroma kuroshiensis, an edible green alga cultivated worldwide and most expensive among green algae, belongs to this group.
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