BETTER WAY TO CONSTRUCT THE SUNFLOWER HEAD

The flower or seed pattern in a sunflower head can be approximately constructed by the method of Davis and Mathai [1], which has inspired the cover of this journal. This construction reflects, besides the well-known spiral arcs, two kinds of irregularities, one of which is also observed in natural heads, the other not. The latter kind of irregularities is shown to be due to the semiempirical construction employed and can be avoided by a more pertinent, wholly mathematical construction program, which predicts the whole pattern, including the irregularities that are seen in nature, and only these. In particular, concise formulae are given for the points where visible arcs of different order begin and end, and for the concomitant locations of irregularity shaped junction seeds. © 1979.