Tandemming around the country lanes in late springtime, we often don’t get so far, as there are so many beautiful flowers and plants in the verges to photograph!
Whilst taking a few snaps of a gorgeous bank of Scottish Bluebells backlit in the late afternoon sunlight, I spotted a curious sight! This fasciated bluebell!
I’ve only seen a few fasciated plants before, so it really was quite a moment!
This bluebell was quite obviously different – a lot taller than its neighbours, with the classic wide, flat, ribbon-like stem and mutated flower-head of multiple blooms. It really stood out from the crowd!
Description
The RHS website describes fasciated plants as having “flattened, elongated shoots and flower heads that look like many stems compressed together“. The abnormal growth in a fasciated plant is a relatively rare condition which can be caused by a number of different factors, including:
- Environmental
- Viral
- Genetic or hormonal
- Bacterial
- or through injury (perhaps by insects, chemicals or some kind of physical damage).
The affected plants don’t often repeat the disfiguration – a one off intriguing, bizarre phenomenon. Some people can find it quite disturbing, though it can also be quite captivating.
Anyway, back on track…
I took a couple of photos of the fasciated bluebell. Back at home, I searched for some additional information regarding the spectacle (so that I could sound relatively credible in response to queries from friends)!
Then, today, while executing some carefully crafted dog-avoidance (with Rosie, as she can take umbradge with some other dogs, for reasons only she understands) you’ll never guess what I spotted…
Oh yes indeed! Another fasciated flower!
Found!
This time, a dandelion! Again, it was definitely distinct from its dandelion friends with its long flat stem and cluster of disturbingly fused dandelion flower-heads. What is it about things that are different that can also be so compelling? A guilty gaze at the grotesque? A fascination with flowery flounders!
I am keen to return to investigate this pride of fasciated flowers – will this distorted dandelion transform into a clump of clocks?
Keep your eyes peeled, you never know when you might find a fabulous fasciated flower of your very own!
