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Description

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a fasciated (note, that's not "fascinated") dandelion– always thought they were neat.
While this deformation might raise some alarm, it happens naturally for a number of reasons in vascular plants. Hormonal disruption in undifferentiated cells, genetics, fungi, and injury from bugs to name a few causes. They can have multiple heads on one abnormally thick stem, some conjoined like a cell caught mid-division. There’s more to it than I can say, so I highly recommend reading in-depth if you’re interested. This page can help. (Link )

Man-made chemicals can also cause fasciation, but I wouldn’t assume that’s the case for each fasciated plant. After bending this one for the second shot, it was left alone. If I knew someone who could analyze them more closely, I would probably have picked it for them.

In short: this harmless little mutant is a reminder that plants have complicated lives we don't often pay mind to, often because they don't "move" like charismatic fauna do.

Description

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a fasciated (note, that's not "fascinated") dandelion– always thought they were neat.
While this deformation might raise some alarm, it happens naturally for a number of reasons in vascular plants. Hormonal disruption in undifferentiated cells, genetics, fungi, and injury from bugs to name a few causes. They can have multiple heads on one abnormally thick stem, some conjoined like a cell caught mid-division. There’s more to it than I can say, so I highly recommend reading in-depth if you’re interested. This page can help. (Link )

Man-made chemicals can also cause fasciation, but I wouldn’t assume that’s the case for each fasciated plant. After bending this one for the second shot, it was left alone. If I knew someone who could analyze them more closely, I would probably have picked it for them.

In short: this harmless little mutant is a reminder that plants have complicated lives we don't often pay mind to, often because they don't "move" like charismatic fauna do.