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Asked by anon-218590 to Shannah, Richard, Matthew (known as Kaan by, johnpaterson, Emma, Anna on 12 Jun 2019.
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Emma Markham answered on 12 Jun 2019:
Yes. Trees grow their leaves, branches and pincones in special spirals. These use the fibonacci sequence of numbers to space the leaves and branches out to get the most sunlight and not to prevent light reaching lower leaves. This is a big area of research, you can find out more here:
https://www.thejoyofplants.co.uk/fibonacci-numbers-science-plants
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John Paterson answered on 14 Jun 2019:
Some of the patterns you see in trees, for example the veins in leaves, are there to support the structure of the leaf. Others that you see, for example the swirls in bark, are just the natural ripples caused by the bark growing all the time. Branches grow in a certain way that is explained by a kind of maths called ‘fractals’. Patterns exist all over in nature- if you want to learn more, you should look up something called the ‘Golden Ratio’. This is a number repeated in lots of patterns throughout the natural world.
Most of the patterns we see in nature are to do with the way natural structures grow and how they are limited by the laws of physics. Some scientists have looked at this, in particular a Scottish scientist called D’arcy Wentworth-Thompson wrote a book trying to explain why we see certain patterns and shapes repeated in nature.
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