visually, aesthetically, functionally or partially…

aka. 'Plant Modelling'

• proceedings of FSPM07, the Functional-Structural Plant Models conference » http://algorithmicbotany.org/FSPM07/proceedings.html

reading

• “The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants” » http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#webdocs
• “Graphical modeling using L-systems” » http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/abop/abop-ch1.pdf
• “Modeling Trees with a Space Colonization Algorithm” » http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/colonization.egwnp2007.large.pdf
• related techniques may be found in artificial life