The living collection of microalgae (ALCP), or Historical Collection, was created in the end of the 1920s by Mr Lefèvre and Pr. P. Allorge. It is the largest collection of freshwater algae in France and it is presently composed of 850 algal strains representing seven algal divisions. These are maintained in living cultures and their genomes have been sequenced.
This collection constitutes a reference library for taxonomical studies but also for experimentation in ecotoxicology. Some of the strains in the collectin are ISO references.