Late one summers evening I was walking through the woodland with my little Fujifilm X100S. The sun was getting low, and I was taking photos of it shining through the canopy. I liked the way this leaf was back-lit, so I took a macro photograph.
When I orientated this picture vertically, I noticed that the veins in the leaf looked similar to the trunk and branches of the tree. I did a little research and discovered this is called a fractal pattern. The measurements of the main veins of this leaf will scale up to match the measurements in the trees branches. This relationship will also scale down to the microscopic, and scale up to the whole tree and even the entire forest where the tree is growing.
Fractal geometry in nature is fascinating. I'd recommend anyone who’s interested in the natural world research this subject themselves. The relationship between mathematics and nature is truly wondrous.