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Annals of Botany 39: 509-524, 1975
© 1975 Annals of Botany Company

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

Phyllotaxis. II. A Description in Terms of Intersecting Logarithmic Spirals

J. H. M. THORNLEY

Glasshouse Crops Research Institute Littlehampton, Sussex, BN16 3PU

Received: 25 July 1974   

The descriptive theory of phyllotaxis developed by Richards is re-examined. It is shown that, given a set of primordia characterized by a plastochrone ratio and a divergence angle, the parastichy numbers can be chosen in an almost arbitrary manner; further, for a given choice of the parastichy numbers, any number of such spiral systems may be constructed which intersect at the primordial positions. However, all these possible spiral systems are not equally apparent, and for easy visibility, additional conditions must be satisfied. If the divergence angle is close to the ideal Fibonacci angle, then the most visible spiral systems are those where the parastichy numbers are taken from the Fibonacci series. It is suggested that phyllotaxis index may not always be a very useful measure of phyllotaxis.


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