How is the palisade layer adapted to make alot of food?
Rectangular arrangement of cells towards upper surface of the leaf and contain a mass of chloroplasts…. these are ‘lumps’ of chlorophyll which are able to absorb light energy and use it to convert water and carbon dioxide into glucose by Photosynthesis. (Also producing oxygen in the process). Being just under the epidermal cells the palisade is best positioned to absorb the majority of the sunlight that hits the leaves. Also the chloroplasts can stream around the cytoplasm moving to the top of the cell, near the surface and back to maximise their absorption of light energy. The palisade cells then convert the soluble glucose into insoluble starch. Doing this means that the cells can store more food. If the cell only made glucose it would not be able to go on producing food all the time it was light.
