Phyllotaxis
the spirals are counted, not admired
Concept

Handedness — where it appears

Which way a spiral lattice turns, a property of one specimen that no divergence angle or count distinguishes.

Named by 2 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.

stem, lower third2 and 3stem, middle third2 and 3stem, upper third2 and 3disc, r = 0.18–0.3221 and 34disc, r = 0.45–0.6234 and 55disc, r = 0.82–0.9955 and 89stem at rise 0.050, disc of 1600 points, both at 137.51°counted from coordinates onlyone answer against three

Counting up the stem

The same counting machinery, pointed at a stem instead of a seed head, returns one answer three times where the head returned three answers. That contrast is a measurement rather than a preference, and it is the one the whole cylindrical argument rests on.

cylinder · stem count 00.50012346912how far the rule looks, in units of the local spacingscatter a jostle adds, over the scatter the same displacement adds after the choiceequal damage0.82 — the wrong wayinternodes that differ between one neighbourhood and the next422→3113→4none4→6none6→9none9→124 runs per point · window 32–190 nodeseach disagreement is one grid sample

The neighbourhood was already settled

The previous phase explained a small difference between two kinds of noise by saying a jostle is diluted among some thirty neighbours. Sweep the neighbourhood sixfold and the difference does not move — because past four spacings the rule builds the identical lattice, internode for internode. There was nothing to dilute.

mechanism · noise entry

Named alongside it

The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.

CylinderDivergence angleConeCut offDiscretisationDiscriminationEnsembleEquilibriumFibonacciThe range of the interactionLadderLattice offset

All concepts