“FASCIATION”

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 71, 17 December 1937, Page 20

“FASCIATION”

A Garden MysteryMost of us have at some time or another had a flower or a bunch of flowers which appear to be something quite different from the type. A particularly common instance is found in the foxglove. The stem, instead of being round, is flattened and many times its normal width, with, perhaps, a very large number of small or very big flowers, all looking rather unnatural. A sweet pea has been known to give one flower stem with 14 flowers on it, but again, the stem was an inch wide and the rest of the plant useless. This sort of thing is called “fasciation,” and we speak of such a stem or plant as being “fasciated.” Actually, it is an unnatural fusion of several stems. Something has gone wrong w’ith the machinery which builds up the plant, and this sudden stoppage has pushed the energies of the plant into unnatural avenues. Thus a sweet pea, instead of having its growing vitality distributed equally, finds the sap and cell-forming foods all rushing to one particular point, with the result that many more cells are formed —or misformed —just at that point. It causes a fusion of several stems and the result is extraordinary. Nieotianas often become fasciated in the flower stem after a sudden downpour, following a long spell of dry weather, so will the common marigold. It also happens in very strong-growing streptocarpuses and very frequently in hyacinthus candieans. Many herbaceous plants are showing signs of it this year, probably because the growing season, so long delayed, was followed by rather hot weather. As a general rule, when this kind of abnormality happens in your garden, don’t think you have something novel or worth while. It is probably the result of a severe check, a very wet soil, accidental injury to some of the vital roots, or it may be from just the opposite cause —too much food which cannot be assimilated at the correct rate. The cells are perhaps too full of goodness, and vitality, and this causes a thickening of stem or branch ultimately; as the plant tries to do it's work, it does so all at one point.