Nature follows a number pattern called Fibonacci

Scales and bracts are modified leaves, and the spiral arrangements in pine cones and pineapples reflect the spiral growth habit of stems. To confirm this, bring in a leafless stem from some tree or shrub and look at its buds, where leaves were attached.

The buds range up the stem in a spiral pattern, which kept each leaf out of the shadow of leaves just above it. The amount of spiraling varies from plant to plant, with new leaves developing in some fraction - such as 2/5, 3/5, 3/8 or 8/13 - of a spiral. Eureka, the numbers in those fractions are fibonacci numbers!

You can determine the fraction on your dormant stem by finding a bud directly above another one, then counting the number of full circles the stem went through to get there while generating buds in between. So if the stems made three full circles to get a bud back where it started and generated eight buds getting there, the fraction is 3/8, with each bud 3/8 of a turn off its neighbor upstairs or downstairs. Different plants have favored fractions, but they evidently don't read the books because I just computed fractions of 1/3 and 3/8 on a single apple  stem, which is supposed to have a fraction of 2/5. All are fractions with fibonacci numbers, at least.

NUMBERS AND ART

I haven't forgotten about the

... contd.