Chlorophyta

This article is about a group of green algae. For the genus with the common name 'spider plant', see Chlorophytum.

Chlorophyta Temporal range:
"Siphoneae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Clade:	Archaeplastida
Clade:	Viridiplantae
Division:	Chlorophyta Pascher 1914, emend. Lewis & McCourt 2004
Classes
Chloropicophyceae †Chuariophyceae Mamiellophyceae Nephroselmidophyceae Picocystophyceae Pyramimonadophyceae Chlorophytina Chlorodendrophyceae Pedinophyceae Ulvophyceae Trebouxiophyceae Chlorophyceae
Diversity
7,934 species (6,851 living, 1,083 fossil)
Synonyms
Chlorophycophyta Papenfuss 1946 Chlorophycota Chlorophytina Chlorophyllophyceae Isokontae Stephanokontae

Chlorophyta or chlorophytes is a major division of green algae, and is sister taxon to the other major division Charophyta (a paraphyletic group of predominantly freshwater green algae, which form the monophyletic clade Streptophyta after including all land plants) as well as the proposed basal clade Prasinodermophyta, together with whom they form the major primary algae clade Viridiplantae (Plantae sensu stricto).