Foxgloves are some of my fav. vertical accent plants. But occassionally I'll see one or two behave(s) this way. Was wondering if there is something running amock with this species, or just lack of water?
What's wrong with this Digitalis?
The stalk is strangly flatten, and somewhat dwraft. Leaves all appear healthy otherwise....
It looks to me it was suppose to be two blooms, turned out to be Siamese tweens, what do you think?
Maria,
Interesting theory, I was more concerned if it was affected by some kind of virus? Any taker? If you recall with purple cone flowers....some virus causes the blosoms to be deformed and looking rather bazziare.
Kim
It looks like your Foxglove is fasciated. Wow, that's kinda neat in a weird way. I've heard of it happening in lilies but I didn't know it could happen in Digitalis too. I don't know what causes this so hopefully someone else might.
I think it can happen sometimes randomly for no reason, or I think a bit of overspray of herbicide can sometimes do it too. I'm not sure if there might be other things that can make it happen too.
ecrane3,
I rarely pull out the big gun (herbicide/insecticide). This one is growing in a large pot. Being by the water body. For the health of the fish below, I don't spray any of these planting at all.
With some plants it will happen all on its own too
Sometimes a rapid change in the weather at a certain point of growth can cause the fasciation. You should have a very interesting bloom. I had a number of gaillardia that did that last year and a few lilies and daylilies. I find it very interesting to see how the blooms turn out.
Susan
Sometimes a rapid change in the weather at a certain point of growth can cause the fasciation. You should have a very interesting bloom. I had a number of gaillardia that did that last year and a few lilies and daylilies. I find it very interesting to see how the blooms turn out. Here is a photo of a lily that Moby had last year that was fasciated.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2389265
Susan
How interesting! Though, I couldn't see Moby's Lilies fasciation very clearly in the pic. I'll ask her to come and help explain this phenominom. If it's due to great fluctuation of temp. that would explain it. This spring the temp. fluctuated wildly, then there was that late freeze we experienced.
Thank you everyone.
Kim
Lily - do you live near a nuclear power plant? :)
Geez, girlfriend! You made me nervous!!!! LOL.
Here is one good link that shows many photos.
http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/index.html#http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/fascia.html
lincolnitess,
Thank you so much for the link. It's greatly appreciated.
Kim
Does the fasciation occur again in the same plant the following year if it is the type that dies back?
It's normal the next year.
Lily-love, the reason you can't see the fasciation is because that was just 1 stem covered with all those blooms. Had 2 of these and 5 normal stems ~ at the end of the season this monsterous bulbs split in to 8 smaller bulbs.
The stem was 1/16'' thick and 1-7/8 wide. I dissected the stem after blooming and it looked like this
And I'd like to know why you guys didn't alert me to this sooner? Hmm? You know I love weird stuff! LOL
Take lots of pics of your Dig. at it develops. :)
Moby;
Just for you I would (take pics.). lol. I was tempted to pull it out of the container and start fresh planting this morning. Maria, come to show your theory works, ecrane3 too, thanks for sharing the info. Alwaysweeding; Digitalis is biennual, this is its second and final year. According to the info. provided by the experts in plant's fasciation, is probably due to bacterial infection. So my hypothesis was "virus", came pretty close. I've seen these in previous years among flower bed planting, no ill-effects abserved with neighboring plants. At least we've got that much. Thanks goodness.
Kim
I've had Dig. not completely die back over winter and bloom again the next year. Just think of all the seed that you can get out of that head!
Digitalis is perennial except D. purpurea and ferruginea
Ok, Moby,
Here it's this morning
Ok, there goes again, of knowing your plants. Whether it's species, or hybrids. Thanks Claypa. Only thing is, sometimes, plant vendors don't advertise which is which. The most they'll do is whether or not it's perennuals or not. Named cultivars take a whole new meaning, at least to me now.
Kim
Cool.
Maybe my rudbeckiea hirta went to the same place as your digitalis. Mike
Oh wow! mqiq, how does the bloom turn out?
Kim
Let's see more of that, Mike!
The blooms are 2-3 weeks away, but the state of georgia, has been under a severe drought, and I have a bored well, and don't like to chance watering.I'll keep posted the out come, on the blooming.The blooms may be double, or who knows what.I do know that the stem is becomming bow shaped, but still growing.
Here is a picture from the Hosta Library for Ivory Necklace. The flower stalk jumped out at me.
My goodness, it happens to even Hosta? (silly question!). How very interesting.
Two years ago, I had never even heard of this hapening, to any plant, things really change.Mike
Mike,
I 1st had a couple of Foxgloves that showed this occurrence, in 2001. See more about it on the link above. (provided by lincolnitess). Thanks again, Susan.
Kim
update; on foxglove....
Gorgeous! Can hardly wait to see it with the top bloomed out too.
It's happened to me before! :)
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/430544/
The phenomena called 'fasciation' occurs when multiple buds fuse together and form a flattened stem structure. I have added a picture of a buttercup found in my horse lot this spring (2011). Here is a link that adds a little more information: http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/fasciated_plants.htm
Usually, fasciation is a somatic event (in vegetative cells), not a genetic mutation that will be inherited through seeds.
I had a fasciated dandelion last month. I've seen it for years and it's very random and can happen to any plant. I always thought it was similar to co-joined twins but maybe I'm way off on that. lol
other side...
Maybe it's something in your Wisconsin water... ;)
http://cubits.org/liliesforum/thread/view/56397/
I'm with you, Kooger, as I've always thought of them as co-joined twins (or sextuplets??), just an 'oops' of nature. Whether or not something causes it is still up for debate.
I doubt anything causes it. There's mutants in nature all the time, animal and plant. If it's in the WI water, it's in ON and IA water also cuz I've seen them both places in my 5+ decades of life. I walked the fields with my head down, always wanted to see the plants. :)