Chlorophyta

Chlorophyta is a division of green algae, informally called chlorophytes. The name is used in two very different senses so that 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. Like the land plants (bryophytes and tracheophytes), green algae contain chlorophylls a and b, and store food as starch in their plastids.