Flora

A Study in Recursive Botany

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Being an illustrated compendium of botanical forms
generated through the method of Lindenmayer Systems

Scroll to observe growth

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"From so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been,
and are being, evolved."

— Charles Darwin, 1859

Colophon

These specimens were cultivated using the L-System methodology first described by the Hungarian biologist Aristid Lindenmayer in 1968, originally devised for modelling the morphology of algae and the growth patterns of higher plants. The three-dimensional forms employ pitch and roll operators, projected isometrically to the plane.

The illustrations herein are rendered upon the HTML Canvas element through the interpretation of symbolic strings via the Turtle Graphics paradigm. The three-dimensional specimens employ the Three.js library for true volumetric rendering with real-time rotation—a digital homage to the copper plate engravings of naturalists past.

Rendered Anno Domini MMXXVI

Medium JavaScript & Canvas

Specimens XVIII Plates

Finis

A study in recursive botany & algorithmic morphogenesis