Strange flowers were found in the agricultural town of Khatezhino, Minsk region. A whole family of unusual dandelions blooms in a clearing near the road - yellow flower heads are located in groups of 5-8 pieces on huge hollow legs. Scientists cannot name the exact cause of mutations without genetic examination, noting that an unfavorable ecology may have affected.
In general, the plant itself is larger than ordinary dandelions. It grows near the road, which in winter was treated with a special composition against ice. It has ordinary leaves, ordinary flower heads, which, however, are smaller than their neighbors. Flowers sit in groups on thick, flatly fused legs (or, as botanists say, peduncles), there are three such abnormal peduncles. The strange family of dandelions is the only one in this meadow.
Dandelions are the most abundant plant on the planet. Their seeds even fly into the Arctic.
In the comments under the photos published on social networks, Belarusians are looking for the reasons for the appearance of mutant dandelions. There is an opinion that these are the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.
For an expert explanation, Naviny.by turned to the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, where the connection of mutant dandelions with Chernobyl was denied.
First, too much time has passed since the explosion, and plants are more primitive than animals, on which radiation has a prolonged effect. Secondly, the plant was found in an area not directly contaminated with radionuclides.
The specialist of the Botanical Garden called the accrete peduncles of dandelions fascial - this is the deformation of the shoots of plants, manifested in their accretion. It turns out that this phenomenon is not unique for Belarus.
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“Fasciation occurs for various reasons. First, due to external influences. If the plant grew close to the road, then this can become the reason - an unfavorable ecological situation. If you grow plants somewhere near a chemical plant, in a place where fertilizers were scattered, where their concentration is high, then such deformities are possible. Perhaps the herbicide [a chemical to kill vegetation] did that. The dandelion suffered, but survived,”said a specialist at the Botanical Garden.
Harmful living conditions affect genetic manifestations. The set of genes will be the same as in all other plants, but there may be malfunctions in the reading of proteins, the expert explained. Also, the cause of such deformity can be mutational processes that go on regardless of external influences. “We need a separate study to find out why this happened,” the specialist concludes.
“Fasciation occurs in different plants. For example, we have a linden tree, but you will not believe that it is a linden tree, because its leaves are cut like those of a maple. This is also fascial, this is its appearance. There is beet fascial. Scientists have not fully elucidated the causes of fasciation. Some associate it with physical influences, others with genetic diseases, and still others with unfavorable environmental influences,”sums up the candidate of biological sciences.
The specialist also explained that such a single mutation is not able to gain a foothold in the genetic code of dandelions.
“From a human point of view, this is ugliness. Well, what's the difference to a plant? His task is to grow and get seeds. Let's take apples: after all, large, large fruits are also ugliness. In fact, a small box and seeds in it are enough for an apple tree to reproduce. All wild apple trees bear small fruits. There is even an apple tree called berry. She has an apple size of 0.8 cm, but it performs its main function, they give seeds. In nature, half a kilogram of huge apple trees will not survive,”the expert explains.