Another old photo that I have come across while going through some things. This is Selaginella moellendorffii, a plant that I spent the first couple years of my Ph.D. studying. There are a number of attributes that make this plant scientifically interesting, which I will detail in the near future, but one of my favorite aesthetic traits is the branching pattern. Lycophytes branch from the “tips” of the fronds, which are actually branch systems, with the minute scales-like structures being the leaves. Selaginella always carries out dichotomous branching, which means the tips always split into two. In the fronds, the splits are unequal (anisotomous), with one of the resulting branches being larger than the other. But the roots branch isotomously, meaning they split equally.
And the onlything more adorable than anisotomous branching is istomous branching. I mean, just look at it.