Science Narratives

L-System Fractal Tree

A robust fractal tree grown from Lindenmayer rewrite rules — each layer isolates a different scale of the branching hierarchy.

Trees are nature's fractal engineers. Their branching obeys a simple optimisation: maximise light capture and nutrient transport while minimising material cost. The result is a self-similar structure where a branch is a tree in miniature, and a twig is a branch in miniature. This print distills that logic into a robust L-system—a parameter set tuned for visual clarity and structural realism. Each layer isolates a different scale of the hierarchy: the trunk and main scaffold, the mid-level branching, and the fine terminal twigs. The plotter draws each scale in a separate pass, building the tree from coarse to fine. The layered approach reveals the recursive algorithm underneath: the same rule applied at different depths produces a form that looks hand-designed but is entirely generated.

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