Physical phenomenology of phyllotaxis

Takuya Okabe

doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.03.037

Physical phenomenology of phyllotaxis

J Theor Biol. 2011 Jul 7;280(1):63-75. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.03.037. Epub 2011 Apr 9.

Author

Takuya Okabe¹

Affiliation

¹ Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Hamamatsu 432-8561, Japan. ttokabe@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp

PMID: 21497163
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.03.037

Abstract

We propose an evolutionary mechanism of phyllotaxis, regular arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. It is shown that the phyllotactic pattern with the Fibonacci sequence has a selective advantage, for it involves the least number of phyllotactic transitions during plant growth.

MeSH terms

Models, Biological*
Plant Physiological Phenomena*
Plants*