''Chaetopeltis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

green algae The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...

in the order

Chaetopeltidales Chaetopeltidales are an order of green algae in the class Chlorophyceae. In comparison to other chlorophycean orders, the order is species-poor and was circumscribed relatively recently, in 1994; the key ultrastructural features include having ...

,See the

NCBI The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The NCBI is loca ...

br>webpage on Chaetopeltis
Data extracted from the containing a single species, ''Chaetopeltis orbicularis''. It is an

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

on aquatic plants and filamentous algae. It is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

organism, preferring flowing water; it is generally common but often overlooked. ''Chaetopeltis'' is unicellular when young but later grows into a flattened, disc-shaped colony of cells up to 1 mm in diameter and one cell thick. The cells are 15–20 μm wide and 15–30 μm long, with rounded or angular by mutual compression; cells may have one or two long pseudocilia attached, oriented perpendicularly to the disc. The

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...

is parietal and contains a

pyrenoid Pyrenoids are sub-cellular phase-separated micro-compartments found in chloroplasts of many algae,Giordano, M., Beardall, J., & Raven, J. A. (2005). CO2 concentrating mechanisms in algae: mechanisms, environmental modulation, and evolution. ''An ...

. Cells contain

Asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the f ...

occurs by the formation of two to eight

zoospore A zoospore is a motile asexual spore that uses a flagellum for locomotion in aqueous or moist environments. Also called a swarm spore, these spores are created by some protists, bacteria, and fungi to propagate themselves. Certain zoospores are ...

s, which are quadriflagellate; sexual reproduction has also been observed and it is

isogamous Isogamy is a form of sexual reproduction that involves gametes of the same morphology (indistinguishable in shape and size), and is found in most unicellular eukaryotes. Because both gametes look alike, they generally cannot be classified as ma ...

. ''Chaetopeltis'' is usually similar in morphology to ''

Coleochaete ''Coleochaete'' is a genus of parenchymatous charophyte green algae in the order Coleochaetales. They are haploid, reproduce both sexually and asexually, and have true multicellular organisation, with plasmodesmata communicating between adjacen ...

'', but that genus lacks contractile vacuoles and has basally sheathed setae. It is variable in morphology, and single-celled individuals have been described under different names, namely ''Oligochaetophora'' and ''Polychaetophora''.

References

Chlorophyceae genera Chaetopeltidales Monotypic algae genera Freshwater algae {{Green algae-stub