The secret of the incredible shape of the Romanesco broccoli
An international team of researchers has discovered the secret behind the spectacular shape of a Romanesco broccoli plant. It turns out that the formation of plants takes place because the shoots do not develop into flowers.
The stems that form instead have the potential to transform into flowers, but the same sequence begins again.
A wonderful repeating form, such as a Romanesco broccoli, is also called a fractal.
Fractal is a structure in which individual parts are similar to all.
In the Romanesco broccoli, flowers and pieces of them represent all that vegetables in the form.
The shoots were originally designed to form flowers, but that goal is never achieved.
The stems that form instead have the potential to transform into flowers, but the same sequence begins again.
The team, led by Christophe Godin of France’s National Institute for Research in Informatics and Automation, said in its research that, in general, this is a disturbance in the genetic network of flower formation.
