Tetrahedra and Icosahedra in Plants



 
 

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This plant is Japanese Quince (Chaenomeles japonica), and the tetrahedron is a constructible painted in quinacridone red. The color of the pigment and the blooms look to be identical. Taken at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum outside Superior, Arizona, in Spring 2001. I traced a zoomed-in photograph to produce this drawing.


 
 
 

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Taken at the Phoenix Zoo in April 2001. These are Fairy Dusters (Calliandria sp.). They are very fluffy-looking, and I had to take a lot of pictures of them before capturing them in this state of fluffy brilliance. You can see the unopened buds somewhat, but there is a picture below with an icosahedron that was taken a month earlier where there are no blooms, only buds. The tetrahedron is a stage-3 Sierpinski.


 
 
 

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Taken at the Phoenix Zoo in March 2001. These Fairy Duster (Calliandria sp.) buds remind me of raspberries. The colors of the plant look to almost match the colors of the Golden Rectangles nested inside the icosahedron. If you click to enlarge the picture, you can get a really good look at the buds.


 
 
 

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Stage-2 Sierpinski tetrahedron, painted in quinacridone red, hanging on a Bougainvillea (cv. 'Barbara Karst') at the Phoenix Zoo in very early January 2001.


 
 
 

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A stage-2 Sierpinski Tetrahedron is sitting camoflauged in this Hybiscus (Hybiscus sinesis). Taken at the Phoenix Zoo in late January 2001 before getting my own camera. The drawing is an inverse of the photo because I accidentally made the scan with the tracing paper turned on the backside of the drawing.


 
 
 

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An icosahedron with an interior structure of three intersecting Golden Rectangles is sitting in a plant at the Phoenix Zoo, taken in Winter of 2001. The intersection of the Golden Rectangles is very clear in this picture.


 
 

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