In which way(s) does a fractal structure benefit the plants that have them?

[WombleTromble]

An example is the Romanesco broccoli/cauliflower. Why would this plant have this structure and what benefits are there to having such a structure? Can you give other examples of plants with fractal structures and if they benefit from it in another way than the Romanesco broccoli?

It can't merely be "just because", everything nature does serves a purpose.

[fuzzylogician]

This reads like a homework assignment. If so, this board is no here to help with such assignments. If not, you need to clarify why you are asking this question and what you have already done to try and answer it. 

[WombleTromble]

It's not homework but rather personal interest. I was unsure of where else to ask. I've been wondering this for quite a while and I've tried searching a bit myself. So far the only thing I have found is that it creates a bigger surface area thus allowing more effective photosynthesis and that transportation of fluids is made easier (less energy is spent on it apparently).

 

What I'd like though is some more in-depth information. I was hoping some of you here could help me with that.

[Eigen]

You say you've looked for sources, but what have you tried? What have you found?

Quick googling found this book chapter (http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/abop/abop-ch8.pdf) on fractal plants, and showed me that there's tons of information out there.

You seem to have found a driving reason (bigger surface area), what are you looking for that your reason doesn't explain? What type of "more in depth information" are you looking for, and what have you found so far?

As Fuzzylogician said, you need to be specific about what information you've found, and what you don't understand or what else you're looking for.

[WombleTromble]

The sources that I've found for the information I currently have is in Danish and not English, so I don't think it'd be useful to you. What I want to know specifically, I guess, is if there are any other benefits for plants with fractal structures than the ones I've mentioned so far (bigger surface area + easier transportation of fluids). It probably varies between one plant and another, but focusing on the romanesco broccoli would be a good starting point. What I've tried so far is searching on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ although I quickly found out that there wasn't any information relevant to what I'm searching for. Either that or I'm just bad at searching (probably the latter).

 

In conclusion, what I'm looking for is a conclusive answer as to whether there are any other benefits than the ones I've already mentioned or if that's about it?

[rising_star]

If you're interested in plants, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) website is the wrong place to go for information! (If anything, you'd want to look at USDA but even they likely won't have the answer to such a specific question.) Have you tried reviewing the book chapter Eigen posted, checking out its references, and going from there in your search?

[Eigen]

12 hours ago, WombleTromble said:

The sources that I've found for the information I currently have is in Danish and not English, so I don't think it'd be useful to you. What I want to know specifically, I guess, is if there are any other benefits for plants with fractal structures than the ones I've mentioned so far (bigger surface area + easier transportation of fluids). It probably varies between one plant and another, but focusing on the romanesco broccoli would be a good starting point. What I've tried so far is searching on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ although I quickly found out that there wasn't any information relevant to what I'm searching for. Either that or I'm just bad at searching (probably the latter).

 

In conclusion, what I'm looking for is a conclusive answer as to whether there are any other benefits than the ones I've already mentioned or if that's about it?

Science doesn't give the type of answers you're looking for. There's never going to be a conclusive answer that says "there are no other benefits than X", because there's no way to prove it. At best, we can prove that we don't know any other benefits using a given set of methods at a given time.