Physics of a Flower's Bloom

Mathematicians build a model of flowers' blooming.  An unexpected and magical thing.   I hope this kind of modeling has other applications.  Surely it must have.  Inspired by spring in my garden, picture at the right. " ... Not content to just watch flowers dance in the breeze, Harvard physicists have described for the first time how flowers generate the forces needed to curl open come springtime. In the asiatic lily (Lilium casablanca), this poetic blossoming is driven by skewed growth at the edges of petals, the team reports online Mar. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ... "