Harvest time is upon us and for many in the news business that often means running photos of mutant carrots, deformed tomatoes and weird cucumbers.
The year 2024, though, is a bit different. This year, Sudbury.com has gotten images of strange sunflowers and a gourd (or something) that doesn’t quite know what it is.
Earlier this month, we shared a story about Melanie Lalonde, a Sudbury resident who has been growing a sunflower garden in front of her Eyre Street building for several years. This year, one of her flowers grew an odd-looking conjoined head.
Every year I make a sunflower garden in front of the 5plex I live in,” she said. “This year a very unique sunflower has bloomed.”
By unique, she means the unusual plant’s flower head was conjoined, meaning two joined flowers had sprouted from the single stalk.
According to the website Birds&Blooms, this unique growth is known as “fasciation”.
Quoting gardening expert Melinda Myers, the article explains that fasciation, while unusual, isn’t uncommon and occurs in all sorts of plants.
“I often receive calls from gardeners who see this on lilies, cockscombs, dandelions, asparagus and succulents,” Myers is quoted saying. “The conjoined flowers are a result of fasciation. This phenomenon causes a flattening of stems, proliferation of buds and blooms, and two-headed flowers … . The abnormal growth occurs spontaneously as a result of a hormonal imbalance, genetic mutation or the plant’s response to its environment.”
When another Sudbury.com reader, Donna Leclair, saw the weird flower, it reminded her of the strange sunflower she herself grew this year.
“I had one with six heads and two more coming,” she told Sudbury.com. “Of course, it’s dead now but I'd never seen anything like it before.”
The flower also prompted a reader in Lethbridge, Alta., who identified themselves only as Ranjani, to share an image of their conjoined sunflower.
Lalonde’s weird flower also prompted a reader in Newmarket to share images of the odd plant that sprouted in her garden this year.
“In the cozy space of my little garden, where greenery weaves throughout crooked trellises with splashes of colour here and there, I find solace,” Dee Ho told Sudbury.com. “There is a special kind of joy in nurturing seeds as they burst through the dirt, blossoming into flowers and then bearing fruit. Nature’s occasional gift of organic meals are treasured bonuses.”
Wintermelon was something Ho said her father always grew. The plant “brings back memories of joyous harvests and family gatherings. Each year, my siblings and I would gather the children to visit their grandparents and enjoy the savoury homemade wintermelon soup.”
Her parents are older now, Ho said, and no longer tend a garden, but this summer she thought she’d revive the tradition and plant wintermelons. She also planted bottle gourds this year.
Bottle gourds, a.k.a. Calabash, a.k.a. long melon, a.k.a. birdhouse gourd (and several other names) is a plant with longstanding use in China and Japan, dating back 8,000 to 9,000 years. When the plant is young, the flesh is an edible vegetable. If harvested mature, it can be dried and used as a container (hence the name “bottle gourd”), utensil or musical instrument.
When the plants began to fruit, Ho noticed something a little out of the ordinary.
“The garden thrived in its own way, with flowers blooming abundantly, yet only a few fruits maturing. Most wintermelons stayed small, and the baby bottle gourds turned brown and rotted. Perhaps the soil lacked the proper nutrients or disease took hold,” she said.
“Yet, one wintermelon grew bigger and bigger, growing to a length of over 15 inches. Its color and texture seem true, but its shape — a curious blend with its neighboring bottle gourd — puzzles me.
“Is it a mix-up of pollination, a result of poor soil, or maybe it’s just how some wintermelons are? I wonder about its taste and what it looks like inside, though I am content to let it grow until summer’s end.”
Summer is at an end, but the harvest continues. If you’ve grown something odd, you’d like to share, email a photo and info to [email protected].
Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com.