{"id":11123,"date":"2020-12-02T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T22:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=11123"},"modified":"2020-12-19T12:02:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T19:02:57","slug":"botanical-fractal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2020\/12\/02\/botanical-fractal\/","title":{"rendered":"Botanical Fractals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from Smithsonian Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decoding the Mathematical Secrets of Plants\u2019 Stunning Leaf Patterns<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

A Japanese shrub\u2019s unique foliage arrangement leads botanists to rethink plant growth models<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Maddie Burakoff<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aloe
The spiral pattern of an\u00a0Aloe polyphylla\u00a0plant at the University of California Botanical Garden.\u00a0(Stan Shebs via Wikicommons under CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To the untrained eye, plants may appear to grow rather impulsively, popping out leaves at random to create one big green jumble. Take a closer look, though, and you\u2019ll find that a few curiously regular patterns pop up all over the natural world, from the balanced symmetry of bamboo shoots<\/a> to the mesmerizing spirals of succulents<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, these patterns are consistent enough that cold, hard math can predict organic growth fairly well. One assumption that has been central to the study of phyllotaxis, or leaf patterns, is that leaves protect their personal space. Based on the idea that already existing leaves have an inhibitory influence on new ones, giving off a signal to prevent others from growing nearby, scientists have created models that can successfully recreate many of nature\u2019s common designs. The ever-fascinating\u00a0Fibonacci sequence<\/a>, for example, shows up in everything from\u00a0sunflower seed arrangements<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0nautilus shells<\/a>\u00a0to pine cones. The current consensus is that the movements of the growth hormone auxin and the proteins that transport it throughout a plant are responsible for such patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at Smithsonian<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Smithsonian Magazine Decoding the Mathematical Secrets of Plants\u2019 Stunning Leaf Patterns A Japanese shrub\u2019s unique foliage arrangement leads botanists to rethink plant growth models By\u00a0Maddie Burakoff To the untrained eye, plants may appear to grow rather impulsively, popping out leaves at random to create one big green jumble. Take a closer look, though, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}