L systems are language-theoretic models for developmental
biology. They wereintroduced in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer
(1925-1989) and have proved to be among the most beautiful
examples of interdisciplinary science, where work in one
area induces fruitful ideas and results in other areas. L
systemsare based on relational and set-theoretic concepts,
which are more suitable for the discrete and combinatorial
structures of biology than mathematical models based on
calculus or statistics. L systems have stimulated new work
not only in the realistic simulation of developing organisms
but also in the theory of automata and formal languages,
formal power series, computer graphics, and combinatorics of
words.
This book contains research papers by almost all leading
authorities and by many of the most promising young
researchers in the field. The 28 contributions are organized
in sections on basic L systems, computer graphics, graph
grammars and map L systems, biological aspects and models,
and variations and generalizations of L systems. The
introductory paper by Lindenmayer and J}rgensen was written
for a wide audience and is accessible to the non-specialist
reader.
The volume documents the state of the art in the theory of L
systems and their applications. It will interest researchers
and advanced students in theoretical computer science and
developmental biology as well as professionals in computer
graphics.

1. In the Footsteps of L: Exposition of L Systems.- Grammars of development: discrete-state models for growth, differentiation and gene expression in modular organisms.- 2. The Main Path Continues Further: Studies of Basic L Systems.- Regularity properties of L ambiguities of morphisms.- Iterated substitutions and locally catenative Systems: a decidability result in the binary case.- Alternating iteration of morphisms and the Kolakovski sequence.- Interaction strength of DIL systems.- Inductive inference of 0L languages.- A normal form for structurally equivalent E0L grammars.- Simplifications of E0L grammars.- The complexity of the emptiness problem for E0L Systems.- A0L-and CFG-size of languages.- A comparison of two controlled rewriting mechanisms for table Lindenmayer systems.- 3. Images from the Path: Computer Graphics, Pictures and Animation.- L-systems: from formalism to programming languages.- Parameterized L Systems for modelling: potential and limitations.- A high-level language for L-Systems and its applications.- On synchronized Lindenmayer picture languages.- Generation of random planar tessellations by hierarchical decimation.- 4. Walking in the Plane: Graph Grammars and Map L Systems.- Parallel hyperedge replacement.- From parallel graph grammars to parallel high-level replacement Systems.- On relationships between graph L-systems and picture languages: Part II.- Map L Systems with multiple markers.- 5. Enjoying Flora Along the Path: Biological Aspects and Models.- Locally generated colourings of hexagonal cell division patterns: application to retinal cell differentiation.- A model for cellular development in morphogenetic fields.- Splicing schemes and DNA.- Cellworks: an application to plant morphogenesis.- 6. Crossroads and Brandung Path: Variations and Generalizations of L Systems, Related Models.- Parallel communicating Systems of L Systems.- "Forgetful" L Systems.- Skew-morphisms and systems.- An algebraic approach to incomparable families of formal languages.- On the inverse neighborhoods of reversible cellular automata.- Templates, fragments and skins.