Phyllotaxis instability – exploring the depths of first available space

Abstract

The theoretical analysis of the consequences of the phyllotactic pattern being propagated according to the first available space rule has revealed that all monojugate patterns, with the exception of the main Fibonacci pattern, should become developmentally unstable in their low expressions. This fact explains why the main Fibonacci pattern plays the dominant role among other patterns of spiral phyllotaxis. The probability that the pattern becomes unstable varies for different patterns, which likely makes them more or less frequent, and thus easier or more difficult to encounter in nature. The unstable pattern inevitably transforms into another, as the computer simulations show. Theoretically predicted instability of low order phyllotaxis may be treated as one of the causes of natural ontogenetic transitions, occurring in plants. This, however, still does not explain why in nature some patterns with high order of phyllotaxis also change, quite readily one into the other, in shoot apical meristem’s ontogeny.