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- The green thallus of Fritschiella has
upright branches of uniseriate filaments, prostrate regions of
tissue-like filaments, and colorless rhizoids that extend below
the soil surface. The upright filaments are tufted and irregularly
branched with cells that become increasingly elongated and conical
towards the apex of the branch. The end cells lack caps. Each
cell growing above ground has a single parietal chloroplast with
several pyrenoids.
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- These morphological features are an example
of a parallel evolutionary adaptation to terrestrial life with
the land plants. The flagellated reproductive cells show that
Fritschiella is in fact closely related to the chlorophyte
green algae, rather than to the charophyte green algae that gave
rise to land plants.
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- Both the cells and
thallus are distinctly irregular in shape.
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