L-System Plant Growth Screensaver
The L-System Plant Growth screensaver grows branching plant structures using real Lindenmayer-system fractal grammar, the same technique used to model real plant growth. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the L-System Plant Growth screensaver works
The saver applies a real Lindenmayer-system (L-system) rewriting grammar to generate a branching plant structure.
Each growth cycle expands the grammar one more generation, adding new branches and leaves.
Once a plant reaches full growth, it fades and a new random L-system grammar begins growing elsewhere.
This is the same real grammar-based technique botanists and graphics researchers use to model plant growth.
A worked example
A single stem splits into two branches, each of which splits again, quickly building the same self-similar branching seen in real ferns and trees.
Settings & tips
- Accent recolours the branch and leaf tips.
- Based on the real Lindenmayer-system grammar used in botanical modeling.
- A new random grammar begins each growth cycle.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this based on real botany research?
- Yes — real L-system grammars, first developed to model real plant growth patterns.
- Is a key needed?
- No — it is a pure local simulation.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Does every plant look the same?
- No — the grammar rules vary each cycle, producing different branching structures.