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Chara vulgaris is a green alga belonging to the class Charophyceae order Charales. More...

Chara vulgaris is a green alga belonging to the class Charophyceae order Charales., commonly called stoneworts or brittleworts. They grow several decimeters high and are differentiated into a series of nodes and internodes that alternate along the axis of the plant. Cells are multinucleate though young dividing cells are uninucleate. Stoneworts can be easily recognized because of their unique vegetative and reproductive organs. They are widely found in still, clear freshwaters where they form underwater swards, anchored in the sediments by their rhizoids. Some species are also seen in brackish water. The thallus often has unpleasant smell and in some stoneworts it has white lime deposited.

Genus Chara is characterized by internodes which consist of large, elongate cells with branches coming off at nodes which are made of rows of small cells. Reproductive organs arise on the adaxial side of a leaf node, the anthredium lies below the oogonium. It is an important group of algae for understanding the evolutionary origin of land plants. Mitochondrial DNA of Chara vulgaris has been completely sequenced. The 67,737 bp mtDNA displayed 68 conserved genes and 27 introns and the sequence was found to be similar to that of Marchantia polymorpha, a broyophyte, mtDNA. Less...