Deformed pineapple weed?

[whisperycat]

Spotted large clumps of pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea) growing at the edges of a crop field, the strange thiig is they look deformed. Multiple single stems have fused together into a single flat ribbon and the flowerheads are similarly fused together. There were a lot like this! Is this a natural form or are we seeing evidence of chemical induced mutations?

[Hedera]

This could be what is called Fasciation, when stems or flowers fuse together. the rest of the plant looks normal.

[earthdragon64]

Interesting photos, you might find the following thread of interest;

Aberrant Plants - Photo Board

Regards, Audrey.

[whisperycat]

Thanks Hedera, you put me on the curiousity trail and I'm still assimilating all the info there is out there about fasciation. Wiki gives a good intro. I'm sure in this case the trigger was chemical. Going back to the same place, we found more plants of different species, also fasciated. It never used to happen when they fertilised with horse xexexexexe!

[whisperycat]

Thanks Earthdragon64. I've bookmarked your Flickr site, and so far I've done the birds and the Scottish coasts, but thanks for sharing these visions of places I've never seen. I think that's what photography is all about

[whisperycat]

Well I had a brief fascination with fasciation there and I think it more than a coincidence that more fasciated plants were found to be growing in abundance at the edges of the same crop field. You have to wonder what they put in that stuff they spray.







I don't know what sort of plant this is.

[Hedera]

It's a Ribwort plantain, I think.