Green algae phyla

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).

Charophyta () is a paraphyletic group of freshwater green algae, called charophytes (), sometimes treated as a division, yet also as a superdivision. The terrestrial plants, the Embryophyta emerged deep within Charophyta, possibly from terrestrial unicellular charophytes, with the class Zygnematophyceae as a sister group.

The Prasinodermophyta are a proposed basal division of marine algae from the green algae clade Viridiplantae, sister to the much larger clades Chlorophyta and Streptophyta, the latter of which gave rise to all land plants (embryophytes). It consists of two classes Prasinodermophyceae and Palmophyllophyceae, and is informally called prasinodermophytes. They were previously considered to be a basal Chlorophyta clade, or part of the "prasinophytes".