The SunflowerPlot command generates a sunflower plot for the specified data. The n-dimensional space defined by the data sample(s) provided is divided into a regular lattice of lines, squares, or cubes (depending of the number of data samples), with side lengths equal to length. Any such division that contains one or more points from the data sample(s) is filled with a sunflower.

A sunflower is a two-dimensional object that is centered inside one of the n-dimensional divisions. One radial arm extends from the center point of the sunflower for each real point contained in the division.

Since all data points are replaced by sunflowers, this type of plot is ideal when there is a large number of points that need to be plotted and the detail of the exact position of every point is not important.

The parameters X, Y and Z are the data samples to be plotted. Each can be given as a Vector, Matrix, Array, or list, though they do not all have to be of the same type. They also do not need to be one dimensional, but will be treated as though they are. The first data sample, X, is required, but the second and third data samples, Y and Z respectively, are optional. Note that all data samples must have the same number of elements.

This function is part of the Statistics package, so it can be used in the short form SunflowerPlot(..) only after executing the command with(Statistics).  However, it can always be accessed through the long form of the command by using Statistics[SunflowerPlot](..).

The options argument can contain one or more of the options shown below. All unrecognized options will be passed to the plots[display] command. See plot[options] for details.

length = positive

This option specifies the length of the lines, squares, or cubes that the sample space is divided into, and subsequently, the diameter of each sunflower.  If length is not specified, then one-tenth of the biggest range among the data samples is used.