Fibonacci sequences in nature2/13/2024 While these shapes have nothing to do with Fibonacci, the kids in your life can seek out Fibonacci sequences or shapes, depending on their skill level while enjoying an outing at Tyler. Not to be left out, you will also see shapes like circles (berries or the rings of a tree), stars (sweetgum leaves or an apple core) and even squares (the square stem of a mint, or the seed capsule of Ludwigia alternifolia, commonly called seedbox – pictured below and found at Tyler). Whether you are in your backyard or at Tyler, look closely and you will start seeing these spirals, and finding these petal counts. Iris have 3 petals, phlox have 5, delphiniums have 8, cineraria have 13 and black-eyed susans have 21. Over and over, you will find the same numbers.Įven if you look at flowers which do not form spirals, you will often find the total number of petals to be a Fibonacci number. Look at a pineapple, an artichoke, water lilies, carnations. They are tightly packed in a spiral, and if you count them, you will see Fibonacci numbers going in each direction – 55 going clockwise, and either 34 or 89 going counter clockwise. Of course this numbering is not always displayed in nature, but you will find it more than you might think. But the sum of each path of spiraling bracts results in a Fibonacci number. Going in the opposite direction the slope rises more steeply. Going in one direction, you will see that the bracts slope upwards gradually. Now look at a pinecone and count the individual bracts as they spiral towards the tip. Count in the opposite direction and you will get another Fibonacci number. What about the dahlia? If you were to count the spiraling petals from left to right, you would get one of the numbers listed above, in this case 8. At this angle, you can easily notice the spiral pattern in the center. Take a look at the coneflower pictured below. Remember to start with 0, and count up from there. If you count these leaves as they spiral up the stem, the overlapping leaf will be the 3 rd (elm), 5 th (cherry) or 8 th (pear). By the time a leaf is directly over another leaf, it is far enough up the stem to not interfere with the leaf directly below it. When a plant produces its leaves in a spiral up the stem, it allows for optimal sunlight and water dispersal. It doesn’t make sense for plants to stack leaves over each other since that would block sunlight, and limit water’s ability to travel down the stem to reach the roots. The man who identified this sequence was Leonardo of Pisa, a mathematician born in the 12 th century who was known as ‘Master Fibonacci’. We have a list of numbers that have a pattern and can go on forever. Then keep going to add 1+1 to get 2, then 1+2 =3, then 2+3=5 and so on. The numbers above have a pattern, which is simply starting with zero and adding the next consecutive number (1) to it to get a result of 1. Yes, I put the words ‘math’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence. Math? Really, must we talk about math? What could this have to do with Tyler Arboretum or nature? Well, let’s take just a moment and see if we can find math in nature, and maybe have fun at the same time.
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