Echinacea purpurea 'Bravado'

Dont you love the symmetry of the centre? Perhaps I'm showing my age here, but it looks like OpArt... remember that?

I had to go and have a quite reminder on Wiki ... I had no idea it originated from the Bahaus movement of the 30s! I was born in Summer of 69 so a product of the 60s rather than privet to them, sadly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_art

I know exactly what you mean though ... but, I have to say thay looking at the drawings; they are so perfect that I can't look at them for too long (hurts my brain).

Its a great thought though, Lori. Op Art has to be analytical and rational, whereas the bloom is the result of total chaos and chance.

Mrv... you should look up a book entitled, "Nature's Numbers".... by Ian Stewart. I have always been a Math dolt...but I enjoyed reading that book.

I shall keep an eye out for that if when I'm next out browsing through gardening books.

Fibonacci numbers are also very interesting.

Quote: Leonardo Fibonacci, in about 1200, invented his series in a problem about the growth of a population of rabbits. It wasn't as realistic a model of rabbit-population dynamics as the "game of life" model I've just discussed, but it was a very interesting piece of mathematics nevertheless, because it was the first model of its kind and because mathematicians find Fibonacci numbers fascinating and beautiful in their own right. The key question for this chapter is this: If genetics can choose to give a flower any number of petals it likes, or a pine cone any number of scales that it likes, why do we observe such a preponderance of Fibonacci numbers? End Quote Ian Stewart, "Nature's Numbers", p.136, ...the answer is in the paragraph that follows.... check it out?

I'm most certainly going to find a copy of this book!