Fibonacci in Flowers

This post is an excuse to show some photos of my white swan echinacea. Feel free to skip the text and look at the photos.

I'm not a math nerd. I think I struggled through calculus in high school and I know I struggled through geometry. Geometry made complete sense to me until one fateful day when I was helping a classmate study for a test. The next day I completely blanked out on the exam and my friend got an "A." Since then math has never been the same for me.

Nonetheless, it not's hard to be intrigued by patterns in nature that are a result of math. The Fibonacci Sequence is a series of numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 .... Each number is the sum of the previous two.

0+1=1
1+1=2
1+2=3
2+3=5
3+5=8
5+8=13
8+13=21

This sequence is pervasive in nature in the spirals that form seed heads, in pine cones, and cauliflower. If you look at a the bottom of a  pine cone or at a seed head, you will see that the spirals go clockwise and counterclockwise.

Source: Wikipedia Commons - Alvesgaspar

There are 21 clockwise blue spirals and 13 counterclockwise aqua spirals. 21 and 13 are two numbers in the sequence. This pattern allows the density of the seeds on the head to be uniform without overcrowding in the middle or sparseness along the edges. Pretty cool, huh?

Look at the spirals the next time you see a sunflower or echinacea. Who knew math could be so fun? Do you know of other examples of the Fibonacci sequence in nature?

Lagniappe

Nature by Numbers