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| Not my living room, but there is a plant in the background. |
No, it's not Logan/Wolverine. I wish. Wouldn't it be nice to have that lovely hunk of muscled mutant manliness in your garden? I bet he can wield a mean shovel.
It's several fasciated branches on my Forsythia 'Fiesta.'
Fasciation is a relatively rare condition of abnormal growth in plants that results in flattened, ribbonlike, crested or elaborately distorted stems. It has several causes besides genetic mutation, it can also be caused by bacterial, fungal or viral infection. Apparently Forsythia is particularly prone to it.
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| Fasciation -- like fascination without the "N." |
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| Total weirdness |
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| Kind of looks like a gaping mouth with green teeth |
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| What's with the purple color? |
I've had these fasciated branches on my Forsythia 'Fiesta' for a few years now. I haven't known what to do with them. I vacillate between being intrigued and then repelled by them but don't really want to prune them off.
What would you do with them? For the most part the shrub looks normal. The fasciated branches are hidden at the back, and once the whole thing leafs out, it's not all that noticeable. It's kind of cool to have a freak of nature growing in my garden.
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| Keeping the weirdness hidden -- I know a few people like that. I might be one of them. |
I could cope with having this mutant in my garden too. I bet he's a barrel of laughs.
Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.