Phyllotaxis description
Illlustrates the procedure to generate a phyllotaxic arrangement of leaves, or other things.

Phyllotaxis is the study of the successive arrangement of radial parts of a growing plant, such as the leaves on a stem, or the seeds in the head of a sunflower.

Essentially, these arrangements can be generated using the following simple procedure.

Imagine the first leaf coming off of the stem of some plant. The second leaf that grows from the stem will, first of all, be further outwards or further up the stem, and second of all, it will be coming off of the stem at a different angle than the first leaf.

The third leaf then does the same as the second. It grows further outwards or further up the stem than the second did, and the angle at which it grows has increased again by the same amount it did between the first and the second leaves.

This is the way to generate a phyllotaxic arrangement of leaves, or other things.