A possible connection between dendritic growth in physics and plant morphogenesis

A lot of attention has been dedicated in recent years to pattern formation, both in physics and biology. Since the pioneering work of Alan Turing, sev eral attempts have been made to provide morphogenesis in biology with a mat hematical or physical description. More recently, a lot of attention has be en dedicated to dendritic growth in physics, and especially to the diffusio n limited aggregation paradigm (DLA) and its basic Mullins-Sekerka (M-S) in stability, by which complex fractal branching structures are obtained. Atte mpts have been made to link this model to formation of branched structures in biology, and indeed, a few instances, especially the growth of bacterial colonies and of sessile organisms, have been shown to be related, to some extent, to DLA. For apparently obvious reasons, no attempt has been made to link the DLA paradigm to actual tree growth of higher plants. However, a c loser inspection of the generation of branches in botany, and of the genera tion of branches in dendritic growth reveals the possibility of a real rela tionship. (C) 1999 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicale s Elsevier SAS.