Thoughts on a winter classic
In winter I think of ornamental kale and cabbage. I have never grown these cold weather architectural staples. Here is a classic pose. This image is from Osbourne Seeds, a company that carries a wide variety of ornamental Brassicas. The whorl of rosettes is governed by the mathematical pattern called Fibonacci numbers. Fibonacci numbers comprise a sequence: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55..........
The first number of the sequence is 0, the second number is 1, and each subsequent number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers of the sequence itself...
See the Wikipedia entry here. Turns out that this pattern also gives rise to relationships of proportion and beauty in art and architecture. The Golden Section and the Golden Mean. Underneath the beauty of petals and leaves is Nature's math. How heady is that?
The Walrus and The Carpenter
Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
MinxterBloom
in Fibonacci, math, winter
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2 Comments
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks so much for visiting me the other day and leaving a comment. This math is fascinating - I had no idea this applied to flower petals or design in general, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.
I love this poem--used to recite it all the time when I was young.