Three-headed Monster

We found this three-headed corn poppy in Teesdale this morning. Sometimes abnormalities like this can be caused by herbicide sprays but, since there were other perfectly normal flower stems on the same plant, I think this was simply a chance developmental aberration. The flower stem is flattened like a plank - fasciated in botanical parlance - and this sometimes happens when growing points that would normally develop into separate shoots become joined together. There can be a variety of causes, including physical damage by an insect or pathogen, infection by the bacterium Rhodococcus (Corynebacterium) fascians, environmental shock or a genetic cause. There are other examples of fasciation here and here.

Here's a normal one...

Two heads better than one?

Found this twin-headed dandelion with a wide, flat flower stalk yesterday. There are usually four possible causes of this kind of abnormality: (1) A mutant plant – but if it was a genetic mutant all the flower heads would have been like this, not just one. All the other flowers on this plant were normal. (2) A sub-lethal dose of herbicide – but there were no signs of herbicide damage in any of the surrounding vegetation. (3) A soil bacterium called Corynebacterium, which causes the fasciation sometimes seen in twigs of woody plants like Forsythia, where the stem is wide and flat instead of having a circular cross section – a possibility. (4) Damage to the bud during the earliest stages of development, perhaps by an insect – my favourite theory, in this case.