Diffusion Mechanism for Phyllotaxis

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Abstract
The mechanism for leaf position determination by the diffusion of an inhibitor was studied in relation to the geometry of leaf positions. A computer model was constructed for the inhibitor-diffusion process on a cellular cylindrical surface. The behavior of the model was analyzed mathematically. The model generates most of the phyllotactic patterns observed in nature, and retraints have been found for permissible values of diffusion and decay rates of the hypothetical inhibitor.