Mandelbrot Cauliflower

Mandelbrot cauliflower correspondence

Several people suggested that the cauliflower might be modeled by the Fibonacci sequence. Perhaps so - some botanical things are. I found some interesting websites while looking for a reference. One is Algorithmic Botany.

One of my mathematician friends wrote back with this

  My very non-mathematical friend responds to your cauliflower:

  -------------------
  you mean a mandlebrot set isn't a set of dishes and utensils specifically
  designed to enhance the pleasure of eating mandlebrot?

  As for the cauliflower, I'll take it.  As a matter of fact, that photo is
  worth framing.  gorgeous!  Almost enough to make you believe in a benign god
  of creation.

Here's one of many mandelbrot recipes.

A few days after I put up this page I wanted to see whether it appeared on google, so I looked for Mandelbrot cauliflower. Turns out I'm not alone finding mathematical interest in Fractal foods. My vegetable is an instance of Romanescu cauliflower/cabbage. Lots of people have posted photos, and remarked on the presence of the Fibonacci numbers in the geometry. But my original query is still open - I'd like to know where to find this image in the Mandelbrot set. There are Douady cauliflowers there but they don't look like Romanescu.
There's a nice photo on flickr.com, with some comments. I haven't posted a comment there since I don't particularly want a yahoo account.
July 21, 2010. See Fractal Food on Roice's blog.