Acellular Plants

lower plants, measuring from 1 cm to 1 m long, that sometimes have complex external segmentation but are not divided into separate cells. Such plants constitute one huge cell with numerous nuclei. In some acellular plants, such as algae of the genus Caulerpa, the various parts of the body have different shapes (for example, resembling stems or leaves) and serve various functions. Acellular plants include the algae Siphonales and the fungi Phycomycetes. In phylogeny, acellular plants probably developed from unicellular plants as a result of extreme proliferation and complication of one cell.