Geometrical study of phyllotactic patterns by Bernoulli spiral lattices

Dev Growth Differ. 2017 Jun;59(5):379-387. doi: 10.1111/dgd.12378. Epub 2017 Jul 12.

Abstract

Geometrical studies of phyllotactic patterns deal with the centric or cylindrical models produced by ideal lattices. van Iterson (Mathematische und mikroskopisch - anatomische Studien über Blattstellungen nebst Betrachtungen über den Schalenbau der Miliolinen, Verlag von Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1907) suggested a centric model representing ideal phyllotactic patterns as disk packings of Bernoulli spiral lattices and presented a phase diagram now called Van Iterson's diagram explaining the bifurcation processes of their combinatorial structures. Geometrical properties on disk packings were shown by Rothen & Koch (J. Phys France, 50(13), 1603-1621, 1989). In contrast, as another centric model, we organized a mathematical framework of Voronoi tilings of Bernoulli spiral lattices and showed mathematically that the phase diagram of a Voronoi tiling is graph-theoretically dual to Van Iterson's diagram. This paper gives a review of two centric models for disk packings and Voronoi tilings of Bernoulli spiral lattices.

Keywords: Bernoulli spiral lattice; Voronoi tiling; continued fraction; disk packing; phyllotaxis.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Models, Theoretical*