Patterns in Flowers

Color Patterns

• Flowers can display changes in the color of their petals depending on their stage of development. For example, lungworts, forget-me-nots and larkspurs may change from pink to blue to signal to insects that their flowers have past pollination and they are no longer interested in visitors.

Patterns in Petals

• Flowers use petals to advertise their wares and are designed to do so in the most efficient way. This creates patterns that are replicated by different flower species. For example, the petals of a rose are arranged in a "golden spiral," a pattern that reflects the ratio of numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, namely 0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on, with each number formed by adding together the two numbers immediately preceding it. The number of petals a flower has also tends be a number in the Fibonacci sequence. For instance, lilies and irises have three petals, buttercups have five petals, delphiniums have eight petals, ragworts and cinerarias have 13 petals, chicories have 21 petals and so on. One-petaled and two-petaled flowers exist, as well.

Pattens in Leave Arrangements

• Flowers also follow certain patterns in the way they arrange their leaves and petals along their stems. They stagger them in such a way so as to maximize the exposure to sunlight. One pattern that is found in many species is that the angle at which neighbor leaves are positioned from each other around the stem is 137.5 degrees.

Patterns in Seed Arrangements

• The more seeds a flower can pack, the more chances it will have of reproducing. That is why flowers seeds are packed in the most efficient possible way. This search for efficiency creates patterns among different flower species. For example, several flowers, such as sunflowers, pack their seeds in a spiral formation because this increases the amount of seeds that can be contained in a single seed head.