Geometric series exists in nature: Evidence from sorted area sequences of floral parts and leaves

IF 4.1 3区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Pub Date : 2025-01-02 DOI:10.1111/nyas.15282

Peijian Shi, Bailian Larry Li, Jinfeng Wang, Youying Mu, Weihao Yao, Meng Lian, Linli Deng, Karl J. Niklas

{"title":"Geometric series exists in nature: Evidence from sorted area sequences of floral parts and leaves","authors":"Peijian Shi, Bailian Larry Li, Jinfeng Wang, Youying Mu, Weihao Yao, Meng Lian, Linli Deng, Karl J. Niklas","doi":"10.1111/nyas.15282","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The concept of a geometric series (GS) plays an important role in mathematics. However, it has been neglected in describing biological size series. Herein, we show that a GS describes the nonreproductive (perianth) parts of the flowers of four Magnoliaceae species and two Rosaceae species and the leaves of 60 Alangium chinense and 60 Shibataea chinensis shoots. The sorted areas of floral parts and leaves formed a sequence that was fitted by a GS with the mean of the quotients of two adjacent members in the sequence as the common ratio of a GS. The mean absolute percent error (MAPE) was used to measure the goodness of fit of each GS. Over 99.7% of the MAPE values (371 out of the 372 tested flowers) were less than 10%, and over 97.8% of the MAPE values were less than 5%. Likewise, over 77.5% of the MAPE values (93 out of the 120 tested shoots) were less than 10%, and over 35% of the MAPE values were less than 5%. These analyses provide empirical evidence that the GS exists in nature, and confirm the usefulness of a classical algebraic formula for the study of plant developmental biology.","PeriodicalId":8250,"journal":{"name":"Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15282","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The concept of a geometric series (GS) plays an important role in mathematics. However, it has been neglected in describing biological size series. Herein, we show that a GS describes the nonreproductive (perianth) parts of the flowers of four Magnoliaceae species and two Rosaceae species and the leaves of 60 Alangium chinense and 60 Shibataea chinensis shoots. The sorted areas of floral parts and leaves formed a sequence that was fitted by a GS with the mean of the quotients of two adjacent members in the sequence as the common ratio of a GS. The mean absolute percent error (MAPE) was used to measure the goodness of fit of each GS. Over 99.7% of the MAPE values (371 out of the 372 tested flowers) were less than 10%, and over 97.8% of the MAPE values were less than 5%. Likewise, over 77.5% of the MAPE values (93 out of the 120 tested shoots) were less than 10%, and over 35% of the MAPE values were less than 5%. These analyses provide empirical evidence that the GS exists in nature, and confirm the usefulness of a classical algebraic formula for the study of plant developmental biology.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 综合性期刊-综合性期刊

CiteScore

11.00

自引率

1.90%

发文量

193

审稿时长

2-4 weeks

期刊介绍： Published on behalf of the New York Academy of Sciences, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences provides multidisciplinary perspectives on research of current scientific interest with far-reaching implications for the wider scientific community and society at large. Each special issue assembles the best thinking of key contributors to a field of investigation at a time when emerging developments offer the promise of new insight. Individually themed, Annals special issues stimulate new ways to think about science by providing a neutral forum for discourse—within and across many institutions and fields.