Springer Verlag (New York/Berlin/Heidelberg) 1990, English text 207 pp.

An attempt to re-create the structures of life lies on the border between science and fiction. Known results range from the design of self-reproducing genetic messages to the simulation of multicellular organism development, to the replication of social behavior of animals. This book explains mathematical models of developmental processes and structures of plants, and illustrates them using advanced computer-generated images. The authors adapt the formalism of L-systems as the primary mathematical vehicle to express developmental processes. The notion of L-systems was conceived in 1968 by co-author Aristid Lindenmayer as a formal model of plant development.