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
Photosynthesis of carbon dioxide to carbohydrate, cellular respiration is the oxidation of carbohydrate or other nutrients to carbon dioxide. Nutrients used in cellular respiration include carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids. These nutrients are oxidized to produce carbon dioxide and water, and to release chemical energy to drive the organism's metabolism. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are distinct processes, as they take place through different sequences of chemical reactions and in different cellular compartments. The general equation for photosynthesis as first proposed by Cornelis van Niel is therefore: Since water is used as the electron donor in oxygenic photosynthesis, the equation for