Tessellations in Nature

First off, while reading your blog, this song came to mind from the band Alt-J.

Onward... When I think of tessellation I automatically think of those little blocks that we used in preschool or our early years of elementary school.It was fun to arrange the shapes to make patterns in color and see how things fit together.  I think the main reason teachers encouraged us to uses these and to fiddle with them is so that we could recognize those patterns. And, after playing with them for years, it became easier to recognize similar patterns or tessellations in nature.

The first example, and the most obvious, is a honeycomb. A honeycomb is a structure that bees use to store pollen, larvae, and honey. What is spectacular about this formation is the fact that a bee has a very small brain and is not a very intelligent being. However, they are able to construct these vast tessellations without really realizing what they are doing.






A second example of a tessellation in nature is a pineapple. A pineapple is part of the Bromeliaceae family and is typically grown in tropical climates. The outer portion of this fruit forms an irregular pentagonal tessellation.


The third example of tessellations in nature are scales. Scales are most commonly found in reptiles. These scales offer a lot of advantages to animals. They are often stronger and harder than the skin of a mammal, and acts as a form of shield or protection from predators. This protection is due to the tight knit pattern that the tessellation forms.



Tessellation on paper are a very interesting concept, but in nature they are a beautiful phenomena.