Wisdom of trees

"Leonardo's rule is fairly simple, but stating it mathematically is a bit, well, complicated. Eloy did his best:

When a mother branch branches in two daughter branches, the diameters are such that the surface areas of the two daughter branches, when they sum up, is equal to the area of the mother branch.
(...)
While Eloy was on a break from his day job as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Provence, he started playing around with some calculations, and he came across something rather amazing. From an engineering point of view, if you wanted to design a tree that was best able to withstand high winds, it would branch according to Leonardo's rule.

Apparently, trees have figured out the sophisticated engineering principles all on their own."

(Read the whole story on NPR.org)

PS. The photo was taken on the grounds of Maymont, in Richmond, VA.