Patterns: A game of guesses

[selvin]

The attached was taken some time ago. I'll accept any answer that is generic since genera and species are probably impossible from this fragment.

[mommy_culleton]

interesting shot............does it have something to do with coral???

rose

[calr]

I'm not sure but it looks like the filter from a dehumidifier to me.

Cal

[selvin]

It's not coral, and it's not a filter from a dehumidifier.

Clue: It's not mineral or synthetic.

[bhammitt]

Does it have anything to do with insects:?

[calr]

Is it a type of sea sponge?

Cal

[Alan T]

This is unbelievably like the expanded metal mesh on which I expended a large part of my working life (as a research electrochemist). It is manufactured from sheets of stainless steel or titanium (or any other metal). Knives are inserted into the sheets and twisted to expand the metal to many times the sheets' original area. The wavy surface stirs any liquid flowing past the sheet very effectively, so it was very mass transfer efficient in chemical engineering terms.

If you just want a fence to keep out hoodlums, you need a lot less metal of it's expanded first.

If such such a thing exists in nature, it would be fascinating to see how it manages to grow in that configuration.

Regards, Alan T

[selvin]

Nothing to do with insects or sponges although I must confess the sponge answer would have been one of my guesses had I not known better.

Alan, your expose on the metallurgical properties expanded stainless steel is intruiging and this plant material may be cloning your metallurgical experiments or vice versa.

Mahalo for your guesses.

[Alan T]

OK, well it must be (1) a shot srraight down on to the ends of the cut stalks of an Expamet-imitating plant.

or (2) some kind of seed case ???

Alan T

[freidaw]

Hmmm Is it a Sunflower plant?