Examples in Nature
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Fibonacci's numbers - What about corn?
Why do Corn kernels grow in straight rows?
Corn kernels grow in nice straight rows on the cob. Why? Why is it not like the pinecone or pineapple? Why are corn kernels not in spirals?
Corn was domesticated from a wild grain and selectively bred to form straight rows! It was domesticated from teosinte, a plant common in Mexico. Several mutations made the cob larger with more kernels, the shell on the kernel soft and the rows straight.
The teosinte has a very thin cob with kernels formed on alternate sides. Now if you don't see spiraling in that picture, take a look at a hybrid of teosinte and corn.
The cob on the left is teosinte. On the right is corn. In the middle is the hybrid. As you can see, the spiralling pattern appears!
I count five spiralling up clockwise and three going counter-clockwise. Two adjacent numbers on the Fibonacci sequence. So it appears that we humans suppressed the natural formation of the kernels for our own convenience. A pretty good achievement in ten thousand years and an illustration of how fast evolution can happen.
Copyright © 2007-2009 James Grant
