Nitella

Nitellas are bright green algae that often are mistaken for higher plants because they appear to have leaves and stems. These long, slender, delicate, smooth-textured algae lie on the bottom of a lake or pond and are seldom found in the water column. Whorls of forked branches are attached at regularly spaced intervals along the “stems”. Nitellas sometime grow together with muskgrasses (Chara spp.), another plant-like algae, to form underwater meadows.