Every now and then in our garden, we get a flower that has ‘gone wrong’. Sometimes it has way more petals than it should, or the stem is thickened or flattened; it doesn’t look right.

This snakeshead fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) should have one flower per stem. This one growing in our garden had four, and you can see the flattened stem quite clearly:

Snakeshead fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) with fasciation.

Snakeshead fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) with fasciation. The flattened stem is clearly visible.

We’ve also had snakeshead fritillaries with double or more the number of petals they should have.

What has happened is a condition called fasciation. The causes aren’t clear – they may be a combination of genetic, hormonal, environmental, fungal, bacterial, and viral factors. According to Wikipedia

is a relatively rare condition of abnormal growth in vascular plants in which the apical meristem (growing tip), which normally is concentrated around a single point and produces approximately cylindrical tissue, instead becomes elongated perpendicularly to the direction of growth, thus, producing flattened, ribbon-like, crested, or elaborately contorted tissue.

The plants in our garden in which we see the condition the most are euphorbias and fritillaries. We’ve also had our white foxgloves affected by it more than once. It doesn’t happen every year – probably every three or four years – but it’s so noticeable when it does happen, and as I like curiosities and oddities, I’m very happy to see it.