In message , "Rev \"Fragile Warrior\""
writes

"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message
...
In message , "Rev \"Fragile Warrior\""
writes


He's right. We have them here, too, and I mentioned them last summer in
here. Not only are there multiple heads joined together like multiple
Siamese Twins, the stem going up to the flower is abnormally wide, too,
like
it is multiple stems merged together. They are dandelions. I know what a
dandelion looks like.

Giselle

What you describe is, I think, a fasciated dandelion. What the OP
describes does not sound like the same. "Giant dandelion" suggsts to me
something in the Hieracium/Crepis/Hypochoeris area; "tight cluster of
flower heads" a Sonchus (Sow Thistle), but I find the whole of Lactuceae
difficult to identify.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Okay, you've got me hooked: what's a fasciated dandelion?

Giselle

http://www.agron.iastate.edu/~weeds/...dID/dlion.html

Fasciation is a phenotypic variation which turns up in a variety of
plants. (I've seen it in dandelions, but I think the last I saw was a
Daphne). In some cases it's a genetic mutation; in others it's a
developmental aberration of plant growth, caused by herbicides,
herbivore damage, or whatever. In fasciation stems become flattened and
ribbon-like. In dandelion, where there are no vegetative stems (of any
length) it affects the peduncle (flower stalk), which is homologous to a
stem. As the dandelion "flower" is a compound inflorescence the
fasciated condition, by changing the shape of the base of the
inflorescence also distorts the inflorescence into a ribbon shape.

You can find more detail with Google - "fasciation in plants" or
"fasciation dandelion".
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley