Characiaceae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Divisio: Chlorophyta
Subphylum: Chlorophytina
Classis: Chlorophyceae
Ordo: Sphaeropleales

Familia: Characiaceae

Genera: Acrochasma – Actidesmium – Ankyra – Bicuspidellopsis – Characiella – Characiellopsis – Characium – Craniocystis – Deuterocharacium – Korshikoviella – Lanceola – Marthea – Pseudoschroederia – Sykidion
Name

Characiaceae (Nägeli) Wittrock, 1872 (as "Characieae")

Type: Characium A. Braun

References

Wittrock, V.B. 1872. Om Gotlands och Ölands sötvattens-alger. Bihang till Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar 1(1): 1–72. BHL Reference page. : 32
Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2020. Characiaceae. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. Accessed 2020-03-18.
Characiaceae in the World Register of Marine Species, accessed on 2020-03-18

Characiaceae is a family of green algae in the order Sphaeropleales.[1] It contains epiphytic or planktonic algae that are unicellular or colonial. The cells are heteropolar, with basal and apical ends having different shapes.[2] The daughter cells are often retained in the cell wall of the old mother cell, whose cell wall becomes gelatinized.[3]
Taxonomy

The taxonomy of Characiaceae has undergone significant revision in the last century. Characiaceae once included genera such as Schroederia, but that circumscription made the family polyphyletic, so many of those genera have been transferred to other families. However, the taxonomic affiliation of the type species of the genus Characium (C. sieboldii) is still unclear, which necessitates further revision of the family.[4]

As of March 2022, AlgaeBase accepted the following genera:[1]

Acrochasma Korshikov – 1 species
Actidesmium Reinsch – 2 species
Bicuspidellopsis Korshikov – 1 species
Characiella Schmidle – 1 species
Characiellopsis M.O.P.Iyengar – 2 species
Characium A. Braun – 51 species
Craniocystis – 1 species
Deuterocharacium Petrý – 2 species
Korshikoviella P.C.Silva – 5 species
Lambertia Korshikov – 1 species
Lanceola F.Hindák – 1 species
Marthea Pascher – 1 species
Pseudoschroederia Hegewald & Schnepf – 3 species

References

Guiry, M.D.; Guiry, G.M. "Characiaceae". AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
Komárek, J.; Fott, B. (1983). Chlorophyceae (Grünalgen), Ordnung Chlorococcales. Das Phytoplankton des Süßwassers (in German). E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. p. 1044.
Wujek, Daniel E. (2016). "The chlorococcalean Green Alga Hydrianum Rabenhorst from North America (Kansas and Michigan)". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 119: 105–108. doi:10.1660/062.119.0115. S2CID 88296891.
Fučíková, Karolina; Lewis, Paul O.; Lewis, Louise A. (2014). "Putting incertae sedis taxa in their place: A proposal for ten new families and three new genera in Sphaeropleales (Chlorophyceae, Chlorophyta)". Journal of Phycology. 50 (1): 14–25. doi:10.1111/jpy.12118. PMID 26988005. S2CID 24770288.