Photosynthesis is the process by which plants make food. In green plants, sunlight captured by chlorophyll enables carbon dioxide from the air to unite with water and minerals from the soil and create food. This process also releases oxygen into the air, and people and animals must have this oxygen to breathe. Energy from the sun splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen joins with carbon from the carbon dioxide to produce sugar.
Chlorophyll gives plants their color.
The chloroplasts of most plants are shaped like disks or lenses. Under a microscope, they can be suspended in the part of the cell called the cytoplasm. These organelles are divided into three fundtional compartments by a system of membranes. The chloroplast is bound by a double membrane which partitions its contents from the cytosol. Space i. Thylakoids form another membranous system within the chloroplast.