Tonight, while on our family walk, we discovered some mutant dandelions. We had the perfect combination of the school not mowing the lawn, and the dandelions going to seed. We noticed the stem of one of the dandelions was actually a fusion of two. Not only were both of the stems fused, both of the flowers had blossomed. A few feet away, there was a plant where at least eight stems had grown together.
This second dandelion looked more like a piece of rhubarb. My understanding is that this is actually a phenomenon called fasciation. There are multiple things that could cause this, but honestly my kids don’t care about the cause, just that it looked cool. The best part of the walk was running through the mutant dandelions, as well as the normal ones to kick up the seeds. While the school might not enjoy the idea of spreading more seeds, it is one of my finest memories of childhood. I think it will be for my children as well. We also stopped to “puff” the seeds. Some had more spit than others. I am not sure if that will help the seeds or not.
