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Botanical strengths and limitations of PlantStudio
Plant structure is tremendously various: there is no rule without several
exceptions. (For a fascinating look at the varieties of plant form, see Bell's Plant Form.) PlantStudio attempts to simulate and draw a wide variety of herbaceous plants, but any attempt to do this must leave out some variation. These are
the types of plant structures this version of PlantStudio does and does not draw
well.
Plant features this version of PlantStudio draws well
Plants that can stand up on their own. This includes many wildflowers, garden
plants, ornamental plants, etc. Within this restriction plants can have varying
degrees of stem stiffness.
Separate male and female inflorescences and flowers on one plant, such as corn
and cucumber. These inflorescences and flowers have separate growth and timing
parameters to get as close as possible to the different floral structures.
Fruits. You can choose the timing and shape of fruit growth and design the
fruit shapes yourself.
Bolting. Many plants form rosettes in the first year and bolt in the second
year, such as radishes and many wildflowers. You can specify when and how
strongly bolting occurs.
Special phyllotactic angles (the angle between successive leaves). The default
angle (137.5 degrees) is the most common, but there are exceptions.
Enlarged axillary buds such as in Brussels sprouts.
Sympodial branching (where each apical meristem dies, and an axillary meristem
creates the next stem and leaves) such as in tomatoes. Most plants have
monopodial branching (where apical meristems are the primary creators of new stems
and leaves).
A variety of branching patterns. You can control branching (and therefore
plant shape) with an index of overall branching, a check on secondary branching
(and tertiary, etc), and an index of apical dominance.
A variety of plant growth patterns. Fine control over the allocation of plant
biomass and the timing of growth lets you manage how the plant grows and is
shaped.
Compound leaves in pinnate or palmate shapes.
The most common inflorescence types. The parameter-driven approach (rather
than picking a type from a list) helps you to customize the inflorescence to look
most like the plant you want. You can also manipulate the timing of flower
appearances and the arrangement of flower appearance (bottom-to-top or
top-to-bottom).
Showing the top of the root for plants such as carrots and beets.
Plant features this version of PlantStudio does not draw well
Droopy, clinging, vining, or hanging plants. PlantStudio does not simulate the
effects of gravity, so it works best for plants that stand up mostly on their
own. You can create plants with some curviness in their stems, but PlantStudio
has no realistic model of weight-bearing stems. For example, a plant such as a
columbine doesn't look very good in PlantStudio because PlantStudio doesn't simulate how the flowers droop and nod.
Stipules, thorns, adventitious roots, whorled leaves, variably-shaped leaves,
vegetative propagation (runners), and other less-common plant structures.
Flowers with parts that can't easily be represented by rotating a 3D object around in a circle (such as
orchids).
Many less-common types of inflorescence architecture.
Runners, prop roots and other less-common root systems.
Flowers with multiple layers of petals, sepals or other structures around the
flower.
Leaves and flowers with multiple colors such as coleus and some violets.
Flowers with pistils and stamens large enough to see.
True leaf veining patterns. With care you can create 3D objects in PlantStudio
that mimic somewhat the vein pattern on a leaf, but PlantStudio makes no
attempt to actually model or draw leaf veins.
Monocotyledonous plants (monocots). In PlantStudio, monocots are handled
simply by displaying one seedling leaf, but in reality monocot growth is quite
different from dicot growth. And monocot leaf growth is not drawn correctly.
Meristems in the leaves of monocots are found at the leaf bases, while dicot leaves
have meristems at their furthest edges. PlantStudio models leaf growth on dicot
leaves.
Trees. PlantStudio does not simulate the secondary growth that increases the
girth of trees, nor does it handle multiple-season growth. You can produce a
plant that looks something like a tree, but it will not grow like a tree and will
probably take a very long time to draw.
Dioecious plants, that is, plants that are either wholly male or wholly female
(such as asparagus).
We hope to address at least some of these limitations in a future version of
PlantStudio. Since our emphasis will probably continue to be on herbaceous plants, the gravity and floral-structure limitations will most likely capture our
attention. If you have a particular plant structure you would like to see in the
next version of PlantStudio, send us your botanical wish list -- we would like to know what you want to see.
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