Green algae
Evolution and classification

Green algae are often classified with their embryophyte descendants in the green plant clade Viridiplantae (or Chlorobionta). Viridiplantae, together with red algae and glaucophyte algae, form the supergroup Primoplantae, also known as Archaeplastida or Plantae sensu lato. The ancestral green alga was a unicellular flagellate.

The Viridiplantae diverged into two clades. The Chlorophyta include the early diverging prasinophyte lineages and the core Chlorophyta, which contain the majority of described species of green algae. The Streptophyta include charophytes and land plants. Below is a consensus reconstruction of green algal relationships, mainly based on molecular data.

The basal character of the Mesostigmatophyceae, Chlorokybophyceae and spirotaenia are only more conventionally basal Streptophytes.

The algae of this paraphyletic group "Charophyta" were previously included in Chlorophyta, so green algae and Chlorophyta in this definition were synonyms. As the green algae clades get further resolved, the embryophytes, which are a deep charophyte branch, are included in " algae ", "green algae" and " Charophytes ", or these terms are replaced by cladistic terminology such as Archaeplastida, Plantae / Viridiplantae, and streptophytes, respectively.
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