Vaucheria is a genus of Xanthophyceae or yellow-green algae known as water felt. It is one of only two genera in the family Vaucheriaceae. The type species of the genus is Vaucheria disperma.

The genus was circumscribed by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in Bull. Sci. Soc. Philom. Paris vol.3 on page 20 in 1801.

The genus name of Vaucheria is in honour of Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher (1763–1841), who was a Swiss Protestant pastor and botanist.

Vaucheria exhibits apical growth from the tip of filaments forming mats in either terrestrial or freshwater environments. Its filaments form coenocytes with a large central vacuole pushing against the surrounding cytoplasm; the vacuole extends along the entire filament except for the growing tip. The chloroplasts are located on the periphery of the cytoplasm with the nuclei aggregating toward the center near the vacuole.

It has a hiplontic life cycle, previously thought to be diplontic.

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