Relating to or belonging to the family Characeae of green algae; having the characteristics of stonewort or chara.
From Characeae (the family name) plus the suffix -ous (meaning 'having the quality of'), following standard Latin taxonomic adjective formation.
Characeous plants are botanists' favorites for studying evolution because their ancient lineage is written in their unusual cellular structure—they're like a Rosetta Stone for understanding how complex plants evolved from simple algae.
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