Mutant Flowers

As a follow up to my post about flowers to dye for, I thought I would share with you some photos I took of some mutated or fasciated Black Eyed Susans.

Fasciated plants are caused by genetic mutations that often cause a flat stem and crescent shaped cell growth that can lead to some pretty interesting results. I took these photos of flowers I grew in my mother’s yard. I saved the seeds from these flowers in hopes that the seeds would carry on this fasciated mutation but so far all subsequent flowers grown have appeared normal. I sure am glad I took these photos as these are some of my all time favorite flowers!

Here are the mutants in all their glory!

Below is another really cool random mutation I noticed that grew after the fasciated flowers above. The color is changing to red in the center and petals are growing where they normally would not:

Hope you enjoyed my photos. If I get any new cool mutations this summer I will be sure to document them.

Have a great weekend everyone!