Pinecones and Sunflowers

If you look at a pinecone up close, you can see they have eight rows to the right and thirteen rows to the left.

If you take time to notice a sunflower, and I emphasize ‘time’, they have rows of petals that are in pairs of 21 and 34, 34 and 55, and 55 and 89. Some giant sunflowers may even have a row of 89 or even 144 petals. These are all consecutive Fibonacci numbers. This is done by Mother Nature to ensure that overcrowding does not occur. She’s pretty smart huh?

Return to the Fibonacci main page.