Helmut Vogel's A Better Way to Construct the Sunflower Head, published in the peer reviewed journal Mathematical Biosciences in 1979, is the scholarly paper that set out the divergence angle mathematical model, successive elements placed at the golden angle of roughly 137.5 degrees at a radius proportional to the square root of the element number, reproducing sunflower seed head packing. Its authority rests on peer review and its standing as the standard citation for this specific model in phyllotaxis studies. It is a mathematical model of the pattern, not a physiological account of why plants actually grow this way, which the companion Douady and Couder 1992 experimental study addresses.
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Reliability Tier1
Helmut Vogel's A Better Way to Construct the Sunflower Head, published in the peer reviewed journal Mathematical Biosciences in 1979, the top tier reflecting standard peer review and its standing as the field's own standard citation for the golden angle divergence model. Its limit is that it models the geometric pattern rather than the plant physiology behind it, which a separate experimental study addresses. NotesGives the divergence-angle model (successive elements placed at the golden angle, roughly 137.5 degrees, at radius proportional to the square root of the element number) that reproduces sunflower-head seed packing. Use for the mathematical model itself; Douady and Couder (1992) is the companion source for the physical self-organization experiment confirming it.
Citation
AuthorHelmut Vogel
PublisherMathematical Biosciences, vol. 44, nos. 3-4
Publication Year1979
URLhttps://doi.org/10.1016/0025-5564(79)90080-4
Source Typepeer-reviewed article
Claims Backed By This Source (11 claims)
This source backs 11 claims across the atlas. As facts: 9 well-attested. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Articles, 1 claims: 1 well-attested.
- Plants, 1 claims: 1 general references.
- Sacred Geometry, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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