Studies into Abstract Properties of Individuals. III. A Study of Factors Affecting Emergence

Eighteen individuals ofPinus ponderosaLawson were analyzed for emergence, a difference in organization between the lower and higher levels of a within‐plant hierarchy. The variables used were six distance measurements taken from needle cross sections, and organization was evaluated using angles between eigenvectors and a vector of isometry. Sixteen of 18 individuals analyzed showed emergence. Variation was shown in the degree of emergence, the between‐level difference in organization. Variation in organization was the factor most strongly related to the degree of emergence; it also showed the strongest relationship to degree of emergence in grasses previously studied. These results argue for a possible cause and effect relationship between variation in organization and ontogeny or phylogeny, i.e., time‐related irreversible change. The results also argue for the control of irreversible change residing in systems as a whole rather than their parts and for the direction of change being determined by the historical boundaries of those systems. Emergence is also related to the complexity that increases with the concomitant flows of energy and information in plants.