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The puzzle of the cauliflower

The puzzle of the cauliflower

As I gaze at the surface of a cauliflower

I wonder - how does that work?

How does it grow to be finally fully formed?

Does it start from a bud, or a flower, or a seed?

And how does it know which shade of white it should be?

Though this Romanescu is startlingly green.

How does the outside know that it should grow those knobbly bits,

and how does the inside know it should divide into florets?

How does each cell know its own unique purpose in the greater whole?

And what on earth stops it becoming a courgette?

And in any case, why does it bother with all of this complexity? 

For cauliflower heads, at least in Tescos, contain no nuts or seeds - 

so they serve no useful purpose to propagate the breed.

 

 

Notes:

OUP Workshop Jul 2024, OEM Zoom

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