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Wed, Aug 24, 05 at 20:11
| I live in suburban Philadelphia. I've had purple coneflowers in my yard for the past couple summers. This summer, they came back as usual; however, one of them appeared to produce flowers that were entirely green - the cone and the petals. Also, the petals seemed to be somewhat shorter or stunted. Eventually, the petals disappeared, and from the cone itself sprouted very thin stalks ranging from 1 to 3 inches, and at the top of these stalks were bristly small green "buds" - for want of a better word (about half an inch in diameter), and from some of THOSE are sprouting more of these alien looking sprouts. The overall effect is that of a completely green cone, sans petals, "infested" with nine of these small stalks growing out if its cone
I've searched on the Internet looking for some species or variety that matches this, without success. A friend who lives about a mile away has the same phenomenon, also with her coneflowers. Is this some strange species of coneflower, a disease, or something else? Any help would be appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| There is a type of coneflower that looks sort of like that. Offhand, I don't know the cultivar name or where to find a picture of it. |
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| You'd know if you had the cultivar because you would have spent exdtra for it! Some coneflower buds behave differently- although not quite as bizzare as yours! I'd remove it. Consider it a 'witches broom' a section of strange, gnarly growth on a shrub. I'd be worried that it may be a virus. |
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| Your coneflowers have aster yellows, a viral disease. Pull any affected ones and dispose of them in the trash (do not compost). |
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| I too have a mutated totally green coneflowers. The heads and petals are green. The same color of green too! The petals are very short, in fact the green head is the most prominate part of the flower. I planted these flowers by seed several years ago around a crape myrtle. This is the first year one of them mutated to all green. I plan on taking some pictures of them soon. |
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- Posted by cecilia_md7a 7a/Baltimore,MD (My Page) on Fri, Jun 30, 06 at 12:02
| jancat, Marymd may be correct in her diagnosis - here is a link to a photo of a rudbeckia flower with aster yellows. Is this what your coneflower looks like? |
Here is a link that might be useful: Aster yellows
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