Dandelion

maimover

Can anyone tell me what is happening with this dandelion? I’ve never seen this before...

shllnzl

Looks like you have two plants growing together, one with white flowers. An albino dandelion? No, if you look closer, the flowers are significantly different.

I will be waiting for an answer to this question.

maimover

@shllnzl that fat center stalk with those “flowers” look to be the seed puffs that the flowers turn into. But they stayed like flowers and kind of seeded together like flowers. Very interesting. This is a close up shot

shllnzl

I have seen a thistle that produced seed heads similar to that but the leaves were way thornier.

chimboodle04

As we have been harvesting dandelions this year, I have noticed more than one double or triple headed flowers from our yard (which I have not seen before!). I did not take any pictures, but I suspect yours may be the same type of phenomenon. With mine, they were all attached at the flowers base and shared the same sepal - the petals from all three flowers were crammed in there and spread out fan like because of the crowding... Really wish I had thought to take a shot now - the combined flower head was about an inch wide by 3.5 inches long! The only explanation I can think of is that most of our dandelion flowers have been riding very low to the ground (I suspect due to the cold temps) than they usually do - possibly that hunkering down and crowding caused them to grow together as they formed???

Annie Kate

Yes, we have seen joined flowers, too, but I didn't take pictures. Your plant is amazing, @maimover !

jowitt.europe

What an interesting dandelion!

karenjanicki

Interesting. That's a good a question 😳

ltwickey

This is a phenomenon called fasciation. It is caused by various different things like genetic mutations or bacteria, etc. The stem actually grows in an abnormal way (usually perpendicularly).

maimover

@Annie Kate that picture was from a while ago but I think something was wrong with it.

JodieDownUnder

@maimover I agree with @ltwickey , fasciation. I believe the mutations can be chemical related. In my observations, some plants that have been sprayed with a herbicide but somehow manage to survive, mutate and end up looking a bit weird.

Monek Marie

Could animals also damage the plant when it is young? I had a dandelion like that once and I have not used chemicals on this property, nor my family before me.

You always get chemical air pollution but that deformation seems like it was affected by something quite intense.

ltwickey

@Denise Grant It can also happen from bacteria or fungus in the soil or just a genetic mutation from within the plant itself.

Annie Kate

Very interesting that it starts with a physical stressor. It makes me wonder what physical stressors can do to our bodies.