In Gaia's Garden (Gaia’s Garden), Hemenway has a section devoted to the shapes that recur in natures and why they are used so often. Interestingly, they show up in many different scales - often fractally.

Circles

Circles are the smallest footprint with the most amount of volume. It all radiates from a central equidistant point.

Spirals

Spirals can be seen in conch shells, sunflowers, and spiraling galaxies. Often, in plants, the spiral is the most efficient way to distribute petals or leaves to gather sunlight and not get in the way of each other.

Branches

Branches are the most efficient way to distribute resources. The can be found in rivers going to the ocean, as well as in leaves, branches and root systems that need to collect as much sunlight as possible and then redistribute it back out the furthest extents of the tree.

They are also seen in MLM business models ((MLM branching business model #citation)), power/political heirarchies ((branching structure of power hierarchies #citation)), and in the structure of the church (Branching structure of the church) leadership.

Net/mesh pattern

Meshes can be found in spider webs, birds nests, honeycombs and dried mud. It's a pattern that shows up when something needs to be evenly distributed. A triangle mesh is the most efficient way to fit the largest number of seeds in a bed equally distanced.

Waves

Seen pretty much everywhere, a wave is an oscillation between two extremes. They show up in the ocean, in light waves, in the safety dance (Safety Dance swimming story), in game loops (Game loops help players learn).

Citations

#toolong