Trends

Recent phylogenetic analyses have placed the ancestor of land plants close to a common ancestor between Zygnematales and Coleochaetales. Both orders contain species living in, or displaying the capability to live in, terrestrial habitats.

Terrestrialization is not a unique trait for charophytes evolutionarily close to plants. Less advanced classes, such as Klebsormidiophyceae and Chlorokybophyceae, also contain terrestrial species.

Novel analyses of both advanced and basal charophyte biochemistry, transcriptomes, and genomes have revealed a range of terrestrial adaptations that are orthologous to what is observed in land plants.