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Project Noah Nature School
Taraxacum officinale
Taraxacum officinale grows from generally unbranched taproots and produces one to more than ten stems that are typically 5 - 40 cm tall but sometimes up to 70 cm tall. The stems can be tinted purplish, they are upright or lax, and produce flower heads that are held as tall or taller than the foliage. The foliage is upright growing or horizontally orientated, with leaves having narrowly winged petioles or being unwinged. The stems can be glabrous or are sparsely covered with short hairs. Plants have milky latex and the leaves are all basal, each flowering stem lacks bracts and has one single flower head. The yellow flower heads lack receptacle bracts and all the flowers, which are called florets, are ligulate and bisexual. On the my photos, however there is an unusual case of how dandelion should look like because the four flowers grown together like siamese brothers. Why is it happening I don't know, but if anyone has any kind of explanation I would be glad to read it ;) tnx!
It is native to Eurasia and can be found growing in temperate regions of the world, in lawns, on roadsides, on disturbed banks and shores of water ways, and other areas with moist soils. I have spotted few of this "mutant" flowers along the river but now further away from it and that makes me thing whether some compounds brought by the river have affected its development.
It is considered a weed, especially in lawns and along roadsides, but it is sometimes used as a medical herb and in food preparation. Common dandelion is well known for its yellow flower heads that turn into round balls of silver tufted fruits that disperse in the wind called "blowballs" or "clocks".
Spotted on Apr 23, 2013
Submitted on Apr 23, 2013
16 Comments
no problem never mind ! firstly i thought of some sort of polysomatic mutation but there's a whole part of one plant multiplied and actually several gene-loci of different chromosomes are coding for such a structure - thats why i suggested a polyploidism (and i dont mean the common allo-polyploidism) precisely i thought of endo-polyploidism which is said to be caused by toxins of autumn-crocus as well as often occurs after mowing and affects only parts or single cells of one plant - and i think that's whats happening with the apical meristem tissue that divides into more centers and cannot be split due to the same tissue-identity ... but maybe i'm wrong and would prefer beeing corrected !
sorry martin, I was yo busy I didn't read what you wrote, of course is not a point mutation, I though you wrote is not a mutation either- silly me :D point mutations are not that easy to track just by phenotype...I mean before a point mutation there is a deletion, and wrongly connected parts and other types of mutation....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciation
polyploidism is actually a type of mutation ;) you learn that in elementary school on the example of a strawberry!
well thats an explanation !! :)
Polyploidism is harmless to plants. Also this is the theory of the development of some species. Plus it affects the whole plant not just one flower stalk. The cristate forms are formed when the apex goes wild and start branching in very high speed, in the end you have so many branches that there is not enought space to split so they stay fused. There was one very good explanation about this forms in one of the cacti and succulents sites, but I can't find it now.
i've already seen this mutation here in vienna too ! well i dont think its a point mutation - rather likely to be some kind of polyploidism which can be caused by anthropogene toxins in the environment ...
Good work :) curiosity is still present ;)
Dear @Injica and @Atanas, finally, I have the correct ID species (it took me 2 days)! Take a look at these stems
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/221...
We can help you with the ID Despina, I'm curious too. :)
Dear @Injica, for the moment I am struggling to find the scientific name of my wildflower, then I'll upload the pics...
Thank you Atanes, I guess they prefer big cities :) Despina @ now I am really curious too see what means "funny looking" ;)
Oh I have one funny looking wildflower stem, my self! I'll upload very soon :)
Well it is not the most uncommon that I've seen in the big cities. You probably will find 2-3 more for the season. :)
OK, tnx, is that a common mutation?
The right term is cristate. ;)