A synthesis of the available sedimentological and stratigraphic data on the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene deposits of the peruvian Andes permits determination of the age-range of the succession and stratigraphic range of the main charophyte species. Feistiella ovalis may appear in the late Santonian(?). It persists up to the middle(?) Campanian, where it is associated with Platychara perlata, which still occurs in the late Campanian. Feistiella gildemeisteri and Platychara grambastii are commonly found in association with Amblyochara peruviana. In other parts of Peru, these species occur together with Amblyochara rolli, A. begudiana, Feistiella costata and Saportanella aff. maslovi, strongly supporting a pre-Tertiary, mainly Maastrichtian age. Early Paleocene species are only local and poorly known. The Nitellopsis supraplana-Maedleriella association seems to characterize a late time-span of the Paleocene, though a possible extension into the Eocene cannot be ruled out. © 1994 Academic Press Limited.