Modeling flower pigmentation patterns
Lee Ringham, Andrew Owens, Mikolaj Cieslak, Lawrence D. Harder, Przemysław Prusinkiewicz
Abstract
Although many simulation models of natural phenomena have been developed to date, little attention was given to a major contributor to the beauty of nature: the colorful patterns of flowers. We survey typical patterns and propose methods for simulating them inspired by the current understanding of the biology of floral patterning. The patterns are generated directly on geometric models of flowers, using different combinations of key mathematical models of morphogenesis: vascular patterning, positional information, reaction-diffusion, and random pattern generation. The integration of these models makes it possible to capture a wide range of the flower pigmentation patterns observed in nature.