large division of chiefly freshwater eukaryotic algae that possess chlorophyll a and b, store food as starch, and cellulose cell walls; classes Chlorophyceae, Ulvophyceae, and Charophyceae; obviously ancestral to land plants

The Chlorophyta, or green algae, include about 8000 specieshttp://encarta.msn.com/media_461543986/Major_Algae_Phyla.html of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. Like the land plants (Bryophyta and Tracheophyta), green algae contain chlorophylls a and b, and store food as starch in their plastids. They are related to the Charophyta and Embryophyta (land plants), together making up the Viridiplantae.