Description
I used my better camera to get the close up...I looked at the tiny flower and could see the Fibonacci effect...
The second interesting thing is the structure of the Daisy flower itself. Although at first glance it might appear to be a single flower, it is actually a large number of flowers grouped into a “head”. There are two types of flowers present here. The white petal-like structures around the outside of the flower head are actually modified flowers called ray flowers. They are sterile and only serve to attract pollinators. The tiny yellow structures that make up the bulk of the flower head are the disk flowers. Disk flowers are fertile and each small flower will produce a seed if it is fertilized.
But this is not the end of the story. If one counts the number of right-hand spirals (as I did by printing the picture and marking them as I counted), the total will be 34. Of left-handed spirals there are 21. Almost every daisy of a comparable size in the field will have these same numbers of spirals. What is special about the numbers 21 and 35? There is a mathematical number series called the Fibonacci Series. It starts with 1,1 and then each consecutive term is formed by adding the two previous terms. Thus the Series is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, 34, 55, 89 ….
The numbers of right hand (21) and left hand spirals (34) are consecutive members of the Fibonacci series. This feature is found in many sorts of natural objects: the spirals on a pineapple fruit, on a pine cone, or on a head of sunflower seeds. This sort of pattern seems to optimize the packing so that the maximum number of flowers (or seeds) can be placed in the smallest space.
Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician who lived from 1170 to 1250 (approximate dates). There are a lot more examples of Fibonacci numbers in nature at www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-… .
The scientific name of this plant is