Chlorophyta

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iChlorophyta

"Siphoneae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Chlorophyta

Classes

Chlorophyceae
Ulvophyceae
Trebouxiophyceae
Prasinophyceae

The Chlorophyta, or green algae, include about 17,000 species of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. Like the land plants (Bryophyta and Tracheophyta), green algae contain chlorophylls a and b, and store food as starch in their plastids. They are related to the Charophyta and Embryophyta (land plants), together making up the Viridiplantae.

They contain both unicellular and multicellular species. While most species live in freshwater habitats and a large number in marine habitats, other species are adapted to a wide range of environments. Watermelon snow, or Chlamydomonas nivalis, of the class Chlorophyceae, lives on summer alpine snowfields. Others live attached to rocks or woody parts of trees. Some lichens are symbiotic relationships with fungi and a green alga. Members of the Chlorophyta also form symbiotic relationships with protozoa, sponges and coelenterates.