Okay, okay, the Superbowl is long gone with its painful ending. All we have left is a couple of court appearances to determine if the misogyny was real. But in LX’s aftermath there is one advertisement that warmed the hearts of all middle-school math students and teachers: the Dunkin’ Donuts ad featuring a host of actors, many with Boston roots: Ben Affleck, Alfonzo Ribeiro, Jason Alexander, Tom Brady, Jennifer Aniston, Ted Danson, Jasmine Guy, and Matt LeBlanc.

While the ad may not be that memorable, the topic dwelt upon the Fibonacci sequence. A woman states publicly at the beginning of the commercial that she will marry anybody who can explain the Fibonacci sequence, which, unknown to her and the others is uniquely concerned with the science of botany.

The Fibonacci pattern of counting is not something from calculus: it’s a pattern of somewhat simple counting. Two, four, six, eight, is merely adding two to the preceding number. The Fibonacci sequence is a bit more involved. Here’s what it looks like: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21…. You might expect the next number after 3 to be 4, but it isn’t: the next numbers are 5,8,13,21, etc. The pattern results from merely adding the two preceding numbers.

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First publicized by Italian mathematician Leonard Fibonacci in the 13th century, the pattern can also omit 0 and start with 1,1,2,3,5.... Fibonacci himself started with 1,2,3,5, etc.

Numbers that are part of this sequence are known as Fibonacci numbers. First described in Indian mathematics as early as 200 BCE, they are named after the Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, also known as Fibonacci, who introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics in his 13th century book.

Fibonacci numbers are strongly related to the golden ratio: 1: 1.1618 (which as a non-repeating, non-terminating decimal goes on forever). The further a counter goes out by dividing two consecutive Fibonacci numbers (the smaller into the larger), the closer she/he comes to this ratio, held up as the symbol of beauty in art, sculpture, and architecture.

All of this is well and good, but the true beauty of the Fibonacci numbers is how they appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, the arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit sprouts of a pineapple, the flowering of an artichoke, and the arrangement within a pinecone. Was the Creator of nature playing a game with us? Hmmm.

So, when all this snow melts and you’re enjoying a walk in early spring through Jamaica Plain’s most famous garden, think of the Dunkin’ Donuts ad during Superbowl LX with its Fibonacci numbers as you view various plants and count their various parts.