Fibonacci's Garden

Some very bad weather almost cancelled a field trip I was leading to Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College yesterday. The hour by hour forecast said it was to clear up by 10 am, so I kept it on.



The first half hour was wetter than I wanted, but when it was time to go into the gardens to search for
Fibonacci numbers and spirals in plants the rain stopped. It was a very simple exercise, counting petals and leaf clusters, looking for spirals, but it got us thinking about plants in a different way. Most of the kids found that it was easiest to find petals with Fibonacci numbers and some adults like looking for branching patterns that followed 1,1,2,3,5,8. We shared our drawings of plants and each went on our way.

Our vanful of 2 familes stayed for lunch and a walk through the rest of the gardens. It turned into a glorious day. Although we got lost in a hike through the woods and ended up off-campus, along the way we spotted a "wild" jack-in-the-pulpit which was very cool!
Erin was astounded by how many different colors of lilacs there were and we all took many sniffs to soak up the spring fragrance. I was struck by the color of this dogwood. Can you believe that pink?

We're off for VA tomorrow for a couple of days in Williamsburg and a visit on the way back with a friend in MD, a Scottish Festival and some fossil hunting at Calvert Cliffs!