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PLANT CELL ANATOMY---PHOTOSYNTHETIC PLANT CELLS WITH CHLOROPLASTS, 200X. This photomicrograph is from Elodea, an aquatic fresh water plant that shows basic plant cell structure. CELL WALLS are very prominent. All of these cells have a very large central vacuole represented by the clear areas in the cells but it is not clearly defined. The green structures are CHLOROPLASTS which have a green pigment CHLOROPHYLL which is of primary importance in capturing sunlight and in manufacturing carbohydrates like glucose--this utilizes Carbon Dioxide and Water in the complex process we call PHOTOSYNTHESIS. The leaf margins of Elodea are described as serrulate--these minute spines are actually cells that are cone-shaped like the one shown in the image. These cells have fewer chloroplasts and this one shows a prominent clear, circular NUCLEUS. Elodea is an excellent plant for beginning Biology students to observe basic cell structure and learn how to use a microscope making a wet mount on a microscope slide with biological specimens.