Modeling Flower Pigmentation Patterns

Lee Ringham1, Andrew Owens1, Mikolaj Cieslak1, Lawrence D. Harder2, and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz1
1 Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary

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.

Reference

Lee Ringham, Andrew Owens, Mikolaj Cieslak, Lawrence D. Harder, and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz.
Modeling Flower Pigmentation Patterns. ACM Transactions on Graphics 40(6), Article 233, SIGGRAPH Asia 2021, 14 pages.

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Supplementary MP4 video: video (18 MB).
Supplementary MP4 video (simulations only): video (13 MB).