Fascinating Floricane Fasciation

During one of the pruning demonstration in March, we saw a plant with a very strange shaped cane. The cane was flattened from the ground up. This is called fasciation. According to the Royal Horticultural Society, fasciated stems are "produced due to abnormal activity in the growing tip of the plant."  The cause of most fasciations is not really understood.  It can be a result of injury,  physiological or genetic changes.

A very technical description can be found at: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/2716/. Some very interesting pictures of other plants can be found at:http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/fascia.shtml