I was walking the dog through a field of dandelions and found this gigantic mutant amongst the others. This dandelion has three flower heads! Insane. I likened it to a four leaf clover, a strange mutation but nothing too "out there".
When I got home I put the dandelion in the fridge and did some Google-investigations. I found out that the proper term for this kind of growth is "fasciation" or "cresting". The growth is caused by a mutation in the meristematic cells, by insect or mite attack, or by chemical or mechanical damage (that sentence was stolen from this web address http://www.bloginfrance.com/2012/the-attack-of-the-mutant-dandelions/).
also, there are several different varieties of "dandelions"..possibly this isn't a true dandelion.
ReplyDeletehttp://scnps.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SCNPS_Winter_2012.pdf
check out page 8
damn, Tom. You just blew my mind. I had no idea there were varieties of dandelions. That's nature for you.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was a hairy dandelion. The stem had a lot of peach fuzz on it. I have it in a book now, I'm gonna press the shit out of this dandelion and them frame it in the future.
I found another one yesterday. Perhaps they're completely freaking common.
Delete