Plant growth occurs due to cell proliferation in the meristem. We model the case of apical meristem specific for branch growth and the case of basal meristem specific for bulbous plants and grass. In the case of apical growth, our model allows us to describe the variety of plant forms and lifetimes, endogenous rhythms and apical domination. In the case of basal growth, the spatial structure, which corresponds to the appearance of leaves, results...

Artists have long recognized that trees are self-similar across enormous differences in magnitudes; i.e., they share a common fractal structure - a trunk subdivides into branches which subdivide into more branches which eventually terminate in leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. Artistid Lindenmayer (1971, 1975, 1989, 1990) invented a mathematics based on graph grammar rewriting systems to describe such iteratively branching structures; these were named in honor of him and are referred to as L-systems....