  An interesting feature of growth in animals is that different parts of the
body grow at approximately the same rate. This property is called proportionate
growth. In this paper, we review our recent work on patterns formed by adding
$N$ grains at a single site in the abelian sandpile model. These simple models
show very intricate patterns, show proportionate growth, and sometimes having a
striking resemblance to natural forms. We give several examples of such
patterns. We discuss the special cases where the asymptotic pattern can be
determined exactly. The effect of noise in the background or in the rules on
the patterns is also discussed.
