The original LWM is a zero-dimensional caricature of a planet which is illuminated by the sun and which is able to support merely two different types of vegetation cover.
The surface of the ``naked'' planet, i.e., the planet without
vegetation, is characterized by an overall albedo 
.
The equilibrium temperature 
depends on the insolation S and the
black-body radiation according to
where 
is the Stephan-Boltzmann constant.
As mentioned above, the toy biosphere consists of two components only:
(``white daisies''), covering an area
with temperature 
;
(``black daisies''), covering an area 
with temperature 
.
of species i is a unimodular function with a
maximum at 
:
denotes a constant mortality rate and x, the uncovered area, is
trivially given by
This feedback system has been analyzed by several authors [7, 8, 9, 10] in great detail. One remarkable result is that, in contrast to the uncovered planet, the ``bioplanet'' is able to keep the global temperature relatively constant when the external ``control parameter'' S is varied within a rather wide range. This property of self-regulation is referred to as ``homeostasis''. As a matter of fact, homeostasis is achieved here by a rather simple mechanism: white (black) daisies are fitter in hot (cold) climates as their comparatively high (low) albedo tends to reduce (increase) the local temperature.