The family Characeae are cosmopolitan, occurring on all continents (except Antarctica) and on many isolated oceanic islands. This family included Protochara, Chara, Nitella, Nilellopsis, Tolypella, Lychnothamnus and Lamprothamnium. But when compared to other genera Nitella far exceeds them in number. In India, the number of species of Characeae described is poor and more extensive floristic studies should be undertaken, particularly in remote areas of the country. For instance in Western Ghats, N. hyaline and N. acuminata have been described but the place of collection, year and other particular are not given. Various hill stations jincluding hill tribe areas and villages of Kolli Hills, Shervarayan Hills, Kalrayan Hills, Avalanche, Thoddabetta, Naduvattam, Anamalais, Valparai, Topslip, Courtallum of Western and Eastern Ghats have not been studied so far with reference to flora of Characeae. A large number of species and varieties, along with forms may be available in these areas. Even though, scientists were interested in floristic studies of Indian Charophyta before 1900, the first monograph appeared in 1962, namely Charophyta by Pal, Kundu Sundaralingam and Venkatraman. After this a large number of species and varieties of Chara and Nitella have been investigated and described from various parts of India (Pal et al., 1962). Of these only a few have been reported from South India (five species and two varieties of Chara, and nine species and three varieties of Nitella). There is one more species, Nitella terrestris Iyengar. The other genera were not recorded from South India. The above records from South India were only found in the works of older Charophytologists such as Willdenow (1806) and Braun (1849) etc. A few records are also found in Grove’s (1924) "Notes of Indian Charophyta".
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