Plants

Growth patterns of plants, as seen in pine cones, sunflowers, and pineapples can be represented by the fibonacci sequence.

In pine cones and sunflowers, Golden Mean spirals appear. “There are 55 clockwise spirals overlaid onto either 34 or 89 counterclockwise spirals that are parts of the Fibonacci Series,” Mehrdad Hejazi states in his research about geometry in nature. [17] Not only do the golden mean spirals appear in pine cones and sunflowers, but the amount of golden mean spirals on a pinecone are numbers that appear in the Fibonacci Series. [1]

The Golden Mean spiral in a pinecone. The number of elements in each spiral is a number in the Fibonacci Series. [7]

Pineapples are made of many hexagons. Because of a hexagon’s angles and geometry, these hexagons form a spiral shape. The number of rows of spirals on a pineapple as well as the number of hexagons in each row will always be a number in the Fibonacci Series. From tests on “dried and live pineapple specimens… the maximum number of spirals, and of hexagons contained in each spiral, did not exceed 21 and was never less than 5,” Judithlynne Carson states in her research of the relationship between the Fibonacci sequence and pineapples. [11] This means that in the various species of pineapples, the fibonacci numbers of 5, 8, 13, and 21 all appear in the number of spirals and number of hexagons in each spiral.

The spiral of hexagons on a pineapple. The amount of hexagons in the spiral will always be a number in The Fibonacci Sequence. The spiral of the pineapple is also a Golden Mean spiral. [10]