Mathematics is our way of explaining the chaotic world around us with a system of numbers.

You may be surprised to learn that many mathematical concepts are abundant in nature. But which is the case? Does math mimic nature or does nature mimic math? During the European Renaissance, math was called perfect arts In ou project we focus our attention on plants. Plants, and all other forms of life, have evolved through adapting to their surroundings. Sunflowers, for instance. Let's take a look at the sunflower. We notice that how tightly-packed the seeds are in the center of the flower? the flower packing its seeds in neat spirals eminating from the center. It's an example of the Fibonacci Series appearing in nature. To further examine this concept, we will continue examining flowers. Did you know, for instance, that most daisies have 34, 55 or 89 petals? Those numbers should be familiar to you; they are the 9th, 10th, and 11thFibonacci Numbers. Have you ever wondered why four-leaf clovers are so rare? It's because four isn't a Fibonacci Number. Here is a list of flowers with number of petals:
Number of Petals
3 petals (or 2 sets of 3) 5 petals 8 petals 13 petals 21 petals 34 petals 55 petals 89 petals

Flower
lily (usually in 2 sets of 3 for 6 total), iris buttercup, wild rose, larkspur, columbine (aquilegia), vinca delphinium, coreopsis ragwort, marigold, cineraria aster, black-eyed susan, chicory plantain, daisy, pyrethrum daisy, the asteraceae family daisy, the asteraceae family

There are exceptions to this list. Most fall into two categories; a doubling of the number

of petals, and/or a version of the Fibonacci Series called the Lucas Series (2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, 76, etc.). Mutations and variations from species to species also account for exceptions but when the number of petals are averaged, the number will usually be a Fibonacci or Lucas Number.

By far the most fascinating appearances of the Fibonacci Series in nature are the spirals that can be seen in everything from sunflowers to pine cones to pineapples.. To begin to understand how these spirals come to be, one must go back to the beginning; to where flowers and fruits and seeds Diagram of a seed head with the golden start: the apex. The apex is the tip of angle, about 137.5 degrees, inscribed. the shoot of a growing plant. It is the bud on the end of a stem on a tree and the bulb of a flower before it blooms. Around the apex grow little bumps called primordia. As more primordia develop, they are pushed farther and farther from the apex and they develop into the familiar features of a plant, be it a leaf, a flower, or parts of a fruit. Let us consider a sunflower with primordia growing from the center. The first primordia to develop end up being farther from the apex than later primordia. Therefore, it can be deduced from this in what order the primordia appeared. As it happens, if one took the first and second primordia and measured the angle between them with the center of the seed head as the vertex, the angle would be very close to 137.5 degrees (see above). That angle is very important in describing how primordia form the spirals we see. It is, in fact, known as the golden angle. Here's where the Fibonacci Series comes in. Take two consecutive Fibonacci Numbers and divide the smaller by the

larger. Then multiply by 360 degrees. Let's try 55/89 * 360 = 222.472... . We can round that degree measure to 222.5 degrees. Remember from trigonometry that angles can be measured internally or externally, so if you subtract it from 360 degrees to convert it, you get 137.5 degrees, the golden angle. In other words, 360(1- ) = 137.5... . Another appearance of the Fibonacci Series in seedheads like the one shown above, pincones, pineapples, etc., is that the number of spirals going in each direction is a Fibonacci Number. In the diagram above, for example, there are 13 spirals that turn clockwise and 21 curving counterclockwise. On all other sunflowers, the number of clockwise and counterclockwise spirals will always be consecutive Fibonacci Numbers like 21 and 34 or 55 and 34.

Pineapple with clockwise and counterclockwise spirals. (Move your mouse over the photo to see the spirals.)

It seems like a lot has been covered about appearances of the Fibonacci Series in nature, but you've really only seen the tip of the iceberg.

Probably most of us have never taken the time to examine very carefully the number or arrangement of petals on a flower. If we were to do so, several things would become apparent. First, we would find that the number of petals on a flower is often one of the Fibonacci numbers. Onepetalled ... white calla lily

and two-petalled flowers are not common. euphorbia

Three petals are more common. trillium

There are hundreds of species, both wild and cultivated, with five petals. columbine

Eight-petalled flowers are not so common as five-petalled, but there are quite a number of well-known species with eight. bloodroot

Thirteen, ... black-eyed susan

twenty-one and thirty-four petals are also quite common. The outer ring of ray florets in the daisy family illustrate the Fibonacci sequence extremely well. Daisies with 13, 21, 34, 55 or 89 petals are quite common. shasta daisy with 21 petals

Ordinary field daisies have 34 petals ... a fact to be taken in consideration when playing "she loves me, she loves me not". In saying that daisies have 34 petals, one is generalizing about the species - but any individual member of the species may deviate from this general pattern. There is more likelihood of a possible under development than over-development, so that 33 is more common than 35. The association of Fibonacci numbers and plants is not restricted to numbers of petals. Here we have a schematic diagram of a simple plant, the sneezewort. New shoots commonly grow out at an axil, a point where a leaf springs from the main stem of a plant. If we draw horizontal lines through the axils, we can detect obvious stages of development in the plant. The main stem produces branch shoots at the beginning of each stage. Branch shoots rest during their first two stages, then produce new branch shoots at the beginning of each subsequent stage. The same law applies to all branches.

Since this pattern of development mirrors the growth of the rabbits in Fibonacci's classic problem, it is not surprising then that the number of branches at any stage of development is a Fibonacci number.

Furthermore, the number of leaves in any stage will also be a Fibonacci number.

With the scale patterns of pinecones, the seed patterns of sunflowers and even the bumps on pineapples we have something rather different.

The seed-bearing scales of a pinecone are really modified leaves, crowded together and in contact with a short stem. Here we do not find phyllotaxis as it occurs with true leaves and suchlike. However, we can detect two prominent arrangements of ascending spirals growing outward from the point where it is attached to the branch.

In the pinecone pictured, eight spirals can be seen to be ascending up the cone in a clockwise direction ...

while thirteen spirals ascend more steeply in a counterclockwise direction.

In the close-packed arrangement of tiny florets in the core of a daisy blossom, ...

we can see the phenomenon in almost two-dimensional form.

The eye sees twenty-one counterclockwise ...

and thirty-four logarithmic or equiangular spirals. In any daisy, the combination of counterclockwise and clockwise spirals generally consists of successive terms of the Fibonacci sequence.

Pineapple scales are also patterned into spirals and, ...

because they are roughly hexagonal in shape, three distinct sets of spirals may be observed.

One set of 5 parallel spirals ascends at a shallow angle to the right, ...

a second set of 8 parallel spirals ascends more steeply to the left, ...

and the third set of 13 parallel spirals ascends very steeply to the right.

The Fibonacci number patterns encountered herein occur so frequently in nature that we often hear the phenomenon referred to as a "law of nature". Not all four-petalled flowers are so rare as the four-leaf clover is reputed to be and deviations, sometimes even large ones, from Fibonacci patterns have been found. If this is at all disturbing to the modern botanist, it is not at all so to the Fibonacci devotee, for whom the whole phenomenon, if not a "law", is at least a fascinating prevalent tendency!

Fibonacci numbers in flower petals

55/89 Daisies