Daily Photo: The Dryopteris Filix-Mas Equation

There is something rather marvellous about the Dryopteris filix-mas, or male fern, which manages to look as though it has been designed by a mathematician with an unusually green thumb. Its fronds unfurl in elegant spirals, bringing to mind the Fibonacci sequence, that peculiar procession of numbers found throughout nature. Whether the fern is following the same mathematical rules is another matter, but it’s comforting to think that while we struggle with arithmetic, a plant in the garden may be getting on with it quite happily.