Researchers Find a Mathematical Pattern Used in City Planning Hidden in the Leaves of a Common Houseplant

The major veins of Chinese money plant leaves form what’s called a Voronoi diagram. It might be caused by a plant-growth hormone that emanates in waves from developing leaves’ pores

June 18, 2026 12:02 p.m.

A plant with a blurry background — Chinese money plant Nick Wurm / CSHL

Houseplant lovers are probably familiar with Chinese money plants, fast-growing perennials known for their coin-shaped leaves. But they might not know that their roundish greenery holds a well-known geometric pattern.

The major veins follow something called a Voronoi diagram, an arrangement found elsewhere in nature and used in city planning, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications on May 12. The discovery might help solve an enduring mystery about some plants’ mesh-like veins.

“We think of these algorithms in nature as an explanation for how organisms will behave and as a way to try to make sense of the world,” says study co-author Saket Navlakha, a computer scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in a statement. “This example is a nice merger of classical geometry, modern plant biology and computer science.”

Voronoi diagrams are used to divide a space into smaller regions, each of which contains a relevant point, such as a school. The subdivisions are created in a way that ensures all students within one region are closer to their designated school than to another region’s school.

The patterns occur naturally, too, and the concept can be traced back to French natural philosopher René Descartes, who described in the 17th century that the night sky can be divided into polygons, with a star at each region’s center. Russian mathematician Georgy Voronoi later studied and defined the diagrams in the early 1900s.

Quick fact: Where do Chinese money plants come from?

Sometimes called coin or pancake plants, Chinese money plants are native to the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of southern China.

Study co-author Elijah Blum first noticed the pattern in Chinese money plant leaves while taking care of his sister’s plants several years ago, reports Science News’ Alex Music. He was a high school intern at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory at the time, so he took the discovery to his supervisor, Navlakha. Blum is now a mathematician at New York University.

The duo, along with other colleagues, studied the relationship between the leaves’ network of interconnected, mesh-like veins and hydathodes, pores that help plants get rid of excess water. Computer simulations hinted that during leaf development, waves of the hormone auxin emanate from each pore. When those waves meet, they form boundaries that turn into major veins.

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the occurrence of Voronoi diagrams in plant venation patterns, where both edges and centers are visible and functional,” the team writes in the study.

Two leaves with sections highlighted — Left: Leaf of a Chinese money plant divided into regions determined by their pores. Right: Computer-generated leaf based on a Voronoi diagram that uses the pores to trace major veins. Navlakha lab / CSHL

The discovery might help explain why some plants have looping, reticulate veins, which has eluded scientists for decades, says study co-author Przemysław Prusinkiewicz, a computer scientist at the University of Calgary in Canada, in the statement.

According to Lawren Sack, a plant biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who did not participate in the study, past research on leaf veins has helped experts improve the design of technologies, such as solar panels and electronic circuits. That’s because insights from plant biology have taught engineers how to optimize distribution systems, he tells Science News.

“The more we know about leaf veins, the more we can build functional and beautiful systems around us,” Sack says.

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