Throughout development, plant meristems regularly produce organs in defined spiral, opposite, or whorl patterns. Cauliflowers present an unusual organ arrangement with a multitude of spirals nested over a wide range of scales. How such a fractal, self-similar organization emerges from developmental mechanisms has remained elusive. Combining experimental analyses in an Arabidopsis thaliana cauliflower-like mutant with modeling, we found that curd self-similarity arises because the meristems fail to form flowers but keep the “memory” of their transient passage in a floral state. Additional mutations affecting meristem growth can induce the production of conical structures reminiscent of the conspicuous fractal Romanesco shape. This study reveals how fractal-like forms may emerge from the combination of key, defined perturbations of floral developmental programs and growth dynamics.

在整个发育过程中，植物分生组织定期产生呈螺旋状、相反状或轮状图案的器官。花椰菜呈现出一种不寻常的器官排列，其中有许多螺旋嵌套在各种鳞片上。这种分形的、自相似的组织如何从发展机制中出现仍然难以捉摸。在拟南芥中结合实验分析通过建模的花椰菜样突变体，我们发现凝乳自相似性的产生是因为分生组织无法形成花朵，但将它们短暂通过的“记忆”保持在花朵状态。影响分生组织生长的其他突变可以诱导锥形结构的产生，让人联想到显眼的分形罗马式建筑。这项研究揭示了分形形式如何从花卉发育程序和生长动态的关键、明确的扰动的组合中出现。