Palisade cell Palisade cell Palisade cells are plant cells located in leaves, right below the epidermis and cuticle. They are vertically elongated, a different shape from the spongy mesophyll cells beneath them in the leaf. Their chloroplasts absorb a major portion of the light energy used by the leaf. Palisade cells occur in dicotyledonous plants, and also in the net-veined monocots, the Araceae and Dioscoreaceae. Palisade cells contain the largest number of chloroplasts per cell, which makes them the primary site of photosynthesis in the leaves of those plants that contain them, converting the energy in light to the chemical energy of
Fractionation of carbon isotopes in oxygenic photosynthesis product 3-phosphoglycerate is depleted in C due to the kinetic isotope effect of the above reaction. The overall C fractionation for C3 photosynthesis ranges between -20 to -37‰. The wide range of variation in delta values expressed in C3 plants is modulated by the stomatal conductance, or the rate of CO entering, or water vapor exiting, the small pores in the epidermis of a leaf. The δC of C3 plants depends on the relationship between stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate, which is a good proxy of water use efficiency in the leaf. C3 plants with high water-use efficiency tend to