Hold shift key while clicking flag (turbo mode). Each new floret finds a place with the least repulsion from previous florets. Existing florets, especially the nearest seeds, repel each new floret. This results in the clockwise and counterclockwise golden angle spirals so common in plants, and in models where each floret turns 137.5 degrees (the golden angle) relative to the previous floret. In this model, however, the code doesn't ever tell florets to turn at all. These florets don't turn, they find the space with least repulsion.
Each new seed finds a place that is furthest away from previous seeds. All previous seeds repel the new seed, but the closest seeds repel the most strongly. So each new seed essentially finds a space with the least repulsion.We find that spot by sending a scount (red) around in a circle (which grows at each step). At each half degree (between 1 and 360) in the circle, all distances of all seeds are summed and recorded in a list. A new seed (green) is cloned at the point of minium repulsion. We assume the repulsion decays exponentially with the distance of each floret. Contrast this mechanism with models where each new floret move precisely at the golden angle of 137.5 degree relative to the previous floret: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/510508246/ In this "emergent" model, by contrast, each floret just finds the most spacious (least repulsive) space. The result seems very similar, but without using code that tells florets how much to turn. My Scratch code is necessarily long, with all florets having to compute distance from a scout sprite that moves 360 times. The underlying idea is based on research arguing that repulsion from preexisting florets explains the positioning of new ones (Steeves and Sussex, 1989; Lyndon, 1990; Sachs, 1991; Douady and Couder 1992, Stenger 2008) and, most of all, Wilensky's NetLogo Sunflower Emergent model (Wilensky. (2009). Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL).
