Journal of Theoretical Biology

Contact pressure models for spiral phyllotaxis and their computer simulation

H. Hellwig, R. Engelmann, O. Deussen

Material

Abstract

We present a simple, biologically motivated model for the creation of phyllotactical patterns in capitula and their computer simulation. An in-depth investigation of Ridley’s contact pressure model is performed and a refinement of contact pressure between primordia on the basis of local centroidal Voronoi relaxation is presented. Using this method in combination with Hofmeisters rule for placing new primordia creates stable patterns with Fibonacci spirals of high degree for a large range of initial conditions.

BibTeX

@article{Hellwig2006Contactpressuremodels,
  author    = {H. Hellwig, R. Engelmann, O. Deussen},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.10.008},
  issn      = {0022-5193},
  journal   = {Journal of Theoretical Biology},
  keywords  = {Phyllotaxis, Contact pressure model, Computer simulation},
  number    = {3},
  pages     = {489--500},
  title     = {Contact pressure models for spiral phyllotaxis and their computer simulation},
  url       = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519305004479},
  volume    = {240},
  year      = {2006}
}