Premium
On the shapes of leaves
Author(s) -
Bird R. J.,
Hoyle F.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.1052190302
Subject(s) - cartesian coordinate system , biology , function (biology) , tree (set theory) , degree (music) , nonlinear system , biological system , mathematics , evolutionary biology , geometry , mathematical analysis , physics , quantum mechanics , acoustics
The properties of a function G(x, y) of 2‐dimensional Cartesian coordinates x, y can be used to obtain complex shapes through a nonlinear iterative procedure. It is conjectured that at least some biological shapes are determined by this procedure, and those of leaves are considered as a test of the hypothesis. It is shown that this procedure will generate the shapes of even very complicated leaves such as those of the holly tree to a considerable degree of accuracy. Certain issues of evolutionary biology appear in our view in a clearer light according to this procedure, and these are discussed towards the end of the paper. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.