Phyllotaxis
the spirals are counted, not admired
Generator

one-step-apart

One row per wrecked cut whose profile has exactly one pair of exceptional classes, drawn at the size of that pair divided by the stem's own settled divergence. Every row sits between 0.882 and 1.076, so the two chains that came apart moved by one organ's step rather than by two or by half of one. The residual is not scatter: rows are grouped by the lag the stem kept, and every lag sits wholly above the line or wholly below it. Why a surviving 5 or 7 overshoots and a surviving 4 or 8 falls short is not answered here.
The exceptional pair, measured in divergences. One row per wrecked cut whose profile has exactly one pair of exceptional classes, drawn at the size of that pair divided by the stem's own settled divergence. Every row sits between 0.882 and 1.076, so the two chains that came apart moved by one organ's step rather than by two or by half of one. The residual is not scatter: rows are grouped by the lag the stem kept, and every lag sits wholly above the line or wholly below it. Why a surviving 5 or 7 overshoots and a surviving 4 or 8 falls short is not answered here.

Drawn at its defaults, in the shape of what a cut leaves behind. It takes no options at all, so every essay calling it gets this exact drawing.

Called by 3 essays

the blast radius of changing it

What a plant might be doing

One level and two exceptions

Inside a wrecked stem's period most residue classes sit at one level and a couple do not. On seventeen of the thirty cuts the exceptions are exactly two, equal and opposite to within five per cent — and on all seventeen they are neighbouring residues, which was not looked for.

 What a plant might be doing

A step of one organ

The balanced pair inside a wrecked stem's period measures 88.0° to 147.2° against divergences of 99.1° to 138.0° — one organ's step, to within twelve per cent on every row. The residual is not scatter: every stem keeping a 5 or a 7 overshoots and every stem keeping a 4 or an 8 falls short.

 What a plant might be doing

The plateau was a prediction

Last round's search for a reference organ found that the largest displacement above a hole is a plateau rather than a peak, and reported it as a failure. A profile constant on each of k residue classes has exactly k levels, so its maximum is attained by a whole class — a ninth to a quarter of every window, forever.

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