Cell wall, chloroplasts and more
Plant Cell Diagram: labeled parts and what they do
An interactive labeled plant cell diagram: tap the cell wall, chloroplasts, central vacuole or any organelle to see its job, quiz yourself, and print it.
Need a worksheet? Make a labeling worksheet with an answer key.
Tap or click any part of the cell, or pick one from the list, to see what it does.
Everything runs in your browser; nothing you choose is uploaded or saved. Print opens a clean page without the controls or advertisements. Diagrams are simplified teaching drawings, so check your class notes for the exact parts your teacher wants you to know.
How to read the plant cell diagram
The thick green border is the cell wall, and the thin pink line just inside it is the cell membrane. Most of the middle is taken up by the central vacuole. The nucleus is pushed toward one side, which is common in mature plant cells. Tap any part to see what it does, or switch to quiz mode to test yourself on all sixteen labels.
- Cell wall: support and protection; made mostly of cellulose.
- Chloroplasts: photosynthesis, using light to make sugar.
- Central vacuole: stores water and keeps the cell firm by pressing on the wall.
- Plasmodesmata: channels through the wall that connect neighboring cells.
What plant cells share with animal cells
A plant cell is not an animal cell with a wall added. It has its own shape and its own extra parts, but it shares the nucleus, nucleolus, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, peroxisomes and mitochondria. Students often forget mitochondria in plant cells: plants make sugar in chloroplasts and then release the energy from that sugar in mitochondria, just as animals do.
Not every plant cell has chloroplasts. Root cells and the cells of an onion bulb grow away from light and usually have none, which is why onion skin cells look clear under a microscope.
Common questions
How many parts are labeled on the plant cell diagram?
Sixteen: cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, nucleolus, nuclear envelope, rough ER, smooth ER, ribosomes, Golgi apparatus, vesicles, mitochondria, chloroplasts, central vacuole, peroxisome and plasmodesmata.
Why is the plant cell drawn as a rectangle?
The rigid cell wall gives many plant cells a box-like shape, especially in stems and leaves. Real plant cells vary, and some are long, round or irregular.
Do plant cells have lysosomes or centrioles?
Most plant cells do not have centrioles, and they handle most breakdown work in the central vacuole rather than in lysosomes, so this diagram leaves both out.
Sources and further reading
The studio notebook
A useful place to begin.
Clear steps, considered details, and ideas you can put to use.
Cell organelles and their functions: a plain-English list
Every organelle on the cell diagram, what it does, and an everyday comparison that makes it easier to remember.
Animal cell vs plant cell: the differences that matter
How animal and plant cells differ, what they share, and the common mistakes students make when comparing them on a test or a Venn diagram.
How to label a cell diagram and remember every part
A step-by-step method for labeling animal and plant cell diagrams on a test, with clues for telling similar-looking organelles apart.
Cell analogy ideas: the cell as a city, a school or a factory
Ready-to-adapt analogies that compare each organelle to a part of a city, school or factory, with tips for writing an analogy that earns full credit.
Prokaryotic vs eukaryotic cells: where animal and plant cells fit
The difference between prokaryotic cells such as bacteria and eukaryotic cells such as animal and plant cells, explained with the parts each one has.
Onion and cheek cells under a microscope: what you can see
What a classroom light microscope shows in onion skin and cheek cells, why you cannot see most organelles, and how this compares with a cell diagram.