It is a true fractal existing in nature - in all I counted five levels of self-similar repeating patterns easily visible without a microscope. Here's a terrible out-of-focus picture I took of one of the small spears broken off, which looks exactly like a smaller version of the larger vegetable.
And finally, to make up for my terrible photography, here's a better picture of the vegetable I downloaded from the Wikipedia fractals page. I have no idea why this vegetable was never featured in my textbooks when they'd discuss mathematical concepts in nature. I think it's much showier than a spiral in sunflower seeds.

1 comment:
what are the chances of getting a taste of that gratin?
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