Symmetries of the Flowers on UGA's Campus

Here we show some of the flowers that are found on the grounds of the university. First the user should attempt to determine which wheel symmetry would best define the given flower on their own. After making an educated guess, if you are a Macintosh user, click on the icon next to the flower to link to our representation of the wheel symmetry in GSP. If you are a PC user, then to view the compatible GSP file you should click the icon. These GSP files have been compressed and will download to your desktop (if your browser is ideally configured). Once the file is on your desktop double click the decompressed GSP file to view our representation. If you have any problems viewing the GSP files please contact Jake at jklerlei@coe.uga.edu with your question.


It is interesting to consider both the flower and its petals without coloring and with the coloring. In several instances the differences between the two cases may be discussed in such a manner as to allow a teacher to assess student understanding of the flower's symmetry.

Find some lovely floral images below. Consider what wheel symmetry is depicted. To determine if you agree with our interpretation of the symmetry, click the icon to the flower's right.

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5) OK, you are right. This is not a flower, but it looked neat. Thus, we included it also.

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So, not challenging enough for you. Click here


Return to the floral symmetry page

Return to the beginning page for our investigations of natural symmetries