Part of a cellulose preparation is amorphous between these crystalline sections. The overall structure is of aggregated particles with extensive pores capable of holding relatively large amounts of water by capillarity.
The natural crystal is made up from metastable Cellulose I with all the cellulose strands parallel and no inter-sheet hydrogen bonding. This cellulose I (that is, natural cellulose) contains two coexisting phases cellulose Iα (triclinic) and cellulose Iβ (monoclinic) in varying proportions dependent on its origin; Iα being found more in algae and bacteria whilst Iβ is the major form in higher plants.