UMBC CMSC 201 Fall '06 CSEE | 201 | 201 F'06 | lectures | news | help |
The arrangement of leaves or twigs on a stem (phyllotaxis, from the Greek word phyhllon meaning leaf and taxis meaning arrangement) correspond to Fibonacci numbers. Select one leaf as a starting point and count up the leaves on the stem until you reach a leaf directly above your starting point. The number of leaves is usually a Fibonacci number. In the above figure, starting from the bottom leaf, we count up 5 leaves to find the next one directly above the bottom leaf. Also, you can count the number of turns around the stem, as you go from a leaf to one directly above it. This too is usually a Fibonacci number. For a pussy willow, typical numbers are 13 for the number of "leaves" and 5 times around.
Many web sites have fascinating discussions about Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. This is a particularly good one from World-Mysteries.
fib(n) = undefined for n<0 fib(0)=fib(1)=1 fib(n)=fib(n-1)+fib(n-2) for n>1
int Fib(int n) { if (n < 2) { return(1); } else { return(Fib(n - 1) + Fib(n - 2)); } }
int Fib(int n) { int i, f1=1, f2=1, temp; if (n < 2) { return(1); } else { for(i = 2; i < n; i++) { temp = f1; f1 = f2; f2 = temp + f2; } return (f1 + f2); }