Fast rendering and botanically faithful description of plants are a real challenge in computer graphics. Usually, plant production is computed using the method internode by internode, while there exist a lot of buds in an individual tree, therefore, this approach is quite time-consuming even for a medium-size tree.
In this paper, we present a new algorithm based on substructure instances to quickly compute plants’ production, and then, for certain plant architectural models, combine with the geometrical rules to create a substructure library. Finally, we construct 3D virtual plants using 3D organs. Compared with the classical method in computing and constructing plant structures, the algorithm described in this paper is much faster while keeping botanical nature of plant. The algorithm can be generalized to most plant species.