By contrast, Mondrian's later painting, Blooming Apple Tree, which sets aside scaling in branch diameter, is not recognizable as a tree. According to the authors, art and science provide ...

The math that describes the branching pattern of trees in nature also holds for trees depicted in art—and may even underlie our ability to recognize artworks as depictions of trees.

Trees in nature follow a “self-similar” branching pattern called a fractal, in which the same structures repeat at smaller and smaller scales from the trunk to the branch tip.

Scientists have discovered that trees in famous artwork follow the same mathematical fractal patterns as real trees. Researchers analyzed tree art across cultures, finding consistent branch ...

Grey Tree by Piet Mondrian, 1911. [Image: Kunstmuseum Den Haag] Fundamental research in the biology of branching helps cure cardiovascular diseases and cancer, design materials that can heal ...

Trees in nature follow a “self-similar” branching pattern called a fractal, in which the same structures repeat at smaller and smaller scales from the trunk to the branch tip.

Natalia Sokko / Getty Images. No two snowflake designs are alike, but many represent fractals in that the branches of a snowflake spawn their own side branches, and so on. The snowflake could ...

Scientists analyze branch patterns in trees and art, from da Vinci to Mondrian. by PNAS Nexus Blossoming apple tree, by Piet Mondriaan, 1912. Credit: Kunstmuseum Den Haag The ...