Phyllotaxis
the spirals are counted, not admired
Generator

where-each-noise-enters

The rule reads its neighbours, builds a profile of the energy at every azimuth, takes the least of it, and records a position. field noise enters at the profile; jostle noise enters at the neighbours; placement noise enters at the record. Two of the three are upstream of the choice and can change which minimum is taken; the third is downstream and never can.
Three disturbances, three places to get inThe rule reads its neighbours, builds a profile of the energy at every azimuth, takes the least of it, and records a position. field noise enters at the profile; jostle noise enters at the neighbours; placement noise enters at the record. Two of the three are upstream of the choice and can change which minimum is taken; the third is downstream and never can.upstream of the choicethe neighboursalready placedthe profileenergy by azimuththe choicethe least of itthe recordwhat a ruler readsfield noisejostle noiseplacement noiseone rule, three entry pointsthe order is the argument

Drawn at its defaults, in noise that arrives through the neighbours. 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

The noise that arrives through the neighbours

The two kinds of noise this site had were idealisations that bracket the rule's choice. The realistic disturbance is neither: a primordium is placed exactly, and then the organ grows, so by the time the next one forms its neighbours have moved. That is a third kind, and it is invisible in every measurement a plant offers.

 What a plant might be doing

A growing organ is part of the rule

Every model on this site places primordia on a surface and then treats the surface as furniture. But the surface grows between one placement and the next, and that growth reaches the rule through the only channel it has — where the neighbours are. What looks like a boundary condition turns out to be a term in the model.

 Stems and cones

What one angle says about the next

A tenth of a degree of placement noise moves a stem's divergence scatter from 0.50° to 0.62°, which nobody would report. It takes the correlation between consecutive angles from 0.54 to below zero. The other two kinds of noise, at scatters where no measurement can separate them, leave it at 0.6.

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