[1] The name was proposed in 1972 to resolve confusion in application and status of Hormidium[Note 1] and was given for the German botanist Georg Albrecht Klebs.

[Note 2] The algae occurs mostly in soil and on moist substrates, nevertheless, aquatic and one marine species are also known.

Many Klebsormidium-species are able to synthesize substances for UV protection, the so-called mycosporine-like amino acids.

The draft genome sequence of Klebsormidium nitens NIES-2285 (called K. flaccidum at the time of publication) was published in 2014.

Traditional morphological characteristics used to delimit the taxa, such as the width of filaments or shape of cells, are unreliable and do not map well to phylogenetic groups.