Do you recognize the golden ratio there? The limiting ratio between successive terms of the Fibonacci sequence is the Golden ratio, 1.61803... to 1. The ratio is sometimes referred to as phi (##\phi##)
The polynomial that you are looking at, ##x^2 + x - 1## is the characteristic polynomial for a similar sequence given by ##x_{n+2} = x_{n} - x_{n+1}## which is basically the reverse of the Fibonacci sequence.
Obviously, if you start a Fibonnacci sequence with 0.61803... and 1, the next term will be 1.61803... You may have noticed that ##1.61803... = \frac{1}{0.61803...}##. The ratio of consecutive terms in this particular sequence is always a constant equal to ##\phi##.
As I recall, if you solve the Fibonacci recurrence you will get some linear combination ## k_1 \phi^n + k_2 (-\phi)^{-n}##. For almost any first two terms you use, the limiting ratio of consecutive elements in the resulting sequence will be either ##\phi## or ##-\phi## in both directions.
If you are interested, we can walk through the details of recurrence relations and the methods for solving them.
You could also just use the quadratic formula, ##\frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}## on your polynomial: ##x^2 + x - 1## (a = 1, b = 1, c = -1) to get roots of ##\frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{2}## = ##\frac{1}{\phi}## = 0.61803... and ##\frac{-\sqrt{5} - 1}{2}## = ##-\phi## = -1.61803...