Romanesco

Follow a curved row of bumps around a Romanesco cauliflower. Other rows turn the opposite way. Each bump carries smaller spiral rows of its own.¹

Start with a cone. Raise small peaks along a spiral around it. Turn each new peak about 137.5 degrees and make it smaller toward the tip. This turn is called the golden angle.² Repeat the spiral on each peak, and underneath the cone. Neighbouring peaks join along their edges.

Viewed from above, this model has eight spiral rows in one direction and thirteen in the other. Eight and thirteen are neighbouring Fibonacci numbers. The same two sets of spirals repeat on each smaller head.³

This is a geometric model inspired by Romanesco. A real cauliflower has a smallest bump.

Further reading

• Romanesco broccoli — Wikipedia
• Where does the shape of the Romanesco cauliflower come from? — IRIG

Sources and notes

1. Cauliflower fractal forms arise from perturbations of floral gene networks. ↩
2. Phyllotaxis as geometric canalization during plant development. ↩
3. Calculation: before the peaks are tilted upward, their positions turn through the golden angle and shrink toward the tip by $e^{-0.015}$ per step. Linking every eighth or thirteenth peak traces the two nearest spiral directions. Each peak repeats this construction. The renderer adds smaller peaks as you approach. ↩

I make a new thing every month or two. Want one email when the next one is out? Nothing else.

Subscribe