Phyllotaxis is the study of patterns made by similar plant parts such as leaves, seeds, and scales and was one of the first biological subjects to be mathematized (Jean, 2001). Phyllotaxis is derived from the Greek words phyllo "leaf" and taxis "arrangement" (Borror, 1988). Scales spiral forming helices around the stem of the cone. The number of left and right spirals are often consecutive terms in the Fibonacci sequence. This specimen has 13 steps to the right and 21 steps to the left.

The following images of the specimen above zoom in on the cover scales. The images were taken with a Canon PowerShot SD770 IS Digital ELPH 10.0 MEGA PIXELS, cropped and resized in Adobe Photoshop CS6. The images were taken in sunlight outside.