Modelling cotton plant development with L-systems: A template model for incorporating physiology

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) has a complex architecture resulting from an intricate pattern of development, which strongly influences its ability to capture resources. Computational modelling can play a part in increasing our understanding of the processes intrinsic to the cotton cropping system at the level of individual branches, leaves and bolls. Such studies may be made for many different purposes, and this has a significant impact on the level of abstraction in the models of underlying function. Depending on whether the model is to be used for visualisation, for understanding the effects of processes at a population level, or for detailed examination of how physiology drives plant development, an appropriate model may be constructed with no functional interaction, with interaction between component types (eg. shoots and roots), or with interactions between all component modules in a plant.