This is a fasciated Culebra. It was healthy until the grasshoppers ate most of the top this past summer. It grew back and looked okay for a while. The pot was difficult to get to. So from a distance it looked fine. Yesterday, I was curious enough to make my way to it.

Description of fasciation: from Wikipedia:

Fasciation is a condition of plant growth in which the apical meristem, normally concentrated around a single point, producing approximately cylindrical tissue, becomes elongated perpendicularly to the direction of growth, producing flattened, ribbon-like, crested, or elaborately contorted tissue. The phenomenon may occur in the stem, root, fruit, or flower head.

Some sites I visited claim fasciation could be caused by any of the following: mechanical damage, chemical damage, insect damage, bacterial or fungal infections. Most sites I visited say the cause is really unknown.

The Brug is green and is growing well. This is how she looks like from above.

This is a side view of my Culebra. The fasciated portion is about 10" tall

Veronica, you are very lucky to find this, because often the plant above the fasciation can end up blooming very heavily, due to all of the nodes available to produce flowers. It's seen often in cultivated Helianthus, resulting in many times more flowers than usual. Hope for 50 flowers.

Wow! That is awesomely strange. But if you will get more blooms that will be beautiful.

Veronica- wow , how unusual looking! Since Culebras are tough to get to blooms, looks like you have plenty of opportunities there!

Fasciation happens fairly often to the blossom scapes on hostas. It kinda looks like cockscomb. And yes, the result is many, many more blossoms than usual. I wonder if anyone else has had experience with this in brugmansia. I've never seen it.

I have seen it in two plant varieties.Culebra and Mexican Tarragon(tagetes minutia I think).I have been removing and trashing it.Maybe I had better let some grow and see what happens.Going to look in the gh now.

I'm going to let this one grow on since I have another Culebra that looks normal and healthy. This is a close up of the top portion. It looks like it may have split into at least 3 branches.

Veronica, I belive I have counted 6. I think it will probably divide a little more before the show is over.

Very impressive, and strange looking! How big is your culebra? Everytime I wanted to bid on it, the price would get up high so I quit, LOL!

Eloise,

It is about 18" tall. It had to grow from scratch this summer because grasshoppers ate most of it. I live on a ranch and in a drought , which we had for 2 whole years, they rival locusts in the amount of damage they do. I lost so many Brugs and other plants to them these last 2 years.

I bought my from JT's (gone2seed) Brug nursery a few years ago.:
http://countrygdn.com/catalog....

Veronica, sorry about the grasshoppers eating up your brugs and other plants! We've had a few grasshoppers last year, but nothing major. I recall growing up in Arizona that every once in a long while, there would be a lot of them for a period. So much so that you didn't even want to be outdoors because they would fly at you, ugh! Hopefully you will find a solution in getting rid of them. I wonder if there is a natural spray that grasshoppers don't like the taste of. Thanks for JT's website.

Grasshoppers are a perennial problem, more some years than others. It's something we have to put up with because the ways to control them are not really practical.

1) All the ranchers around us would have to disk all their pastures. That's not going to happen. What would our cattle eat?
2) Everyone would have to use tons of NOLO. It would have to be re-applied every time it rained.
3) Pesticides would also have to be used over a very large area. They don't work well once the grasshoppers get wings.

And more importantly, grasshoppers would move in from other areas to fill in the void left by the dead. The most we can hope for is we have a wet year which reduces their numbers.

Have you ever been bitten by one?

I find it rather fascinating,be sure to show more pictures.

maybe you can answer a question for me, what causes the leaves to curl under, all the other leaves are fine, and I find NO insects.

Doris

Doris,
I know this is not as concise an answer as you were looking for, but there are a number of causes and you'll have to look at a number of issues. Did you use a magnifying lens to look for spidermites or other pests? If you can't find any even with a magnifying lens, it is probably a nutrition problem. Have you looked up Tonny's thread on nutrition on DG?
http://davesgarden.com/communi...
Unfortunately, Tonny's photos don't appear any more. It's too bad because they were very instructive. However, I do have my copy of Tonny's e-book on Brugmansias. In it, one of the first things he suggests is to check the potting mix's pH. If the soil is too acidic or too alkaline, nutrients get bound up and are not available to the plant. Tonny includes a chart in his e-book that lists deficiencies that can result depending on the soil pH. If the soil pH is below 6.5, then your Brug could be suffering from deficiencies of any of the following: Boron, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Nitrogen, Magnesium, Molybdenum, or Sulfur. If the pH is above 7.0, then the Brug could suffer from the following deficiencies: Phosphorous, Nitrogen, Copper, Magnesium or Zinc. Sometimes, getting the pH back to between 6.5 and 7.0 takes care of the nutrient problem. Adding Calcium carbonate or dolomitic lime will raise the pH. Lowering the pH is much more difficult and in that case it is best to replace the soil. PH of the soil has to be corrected first before you try adding any nutrients.

If the soil pH is where it should be, then adding the needed nutrient will correct the problem. You didn't mention if the leaves that were curling were new or old leaves nor whether you have fertilized you plants since you took them indoors. If the curling leaves are the new leaves, then there is probably a calcium or calcium/potassium deficiency.

You also have to examine the Brug's environment. Sometimes, cooler temperatures and low light can cause a Brug's leaves to curl. Several environmental other issues can also cause the leaves to curl.

IVeronica

Are you going o leave that plant in a pot or going to put it into the soil?? Brugs are the most interesting plants I have ever seen. They have so many little quirks..

We've signed an agreement to have a house built on another part of the ranch, but it won't be ready until next spring. So, for now I'm leaving it in a pot.

I would too. It will keep going. Could you put some kind of netting or screen wire around it to keep the grasshoppers out. I know you go thru a lot to save your Brugs. but I was wondering.

I was considering a shadehouse with lite screening, but the size I would need to protect all my Brugs would cost about $3,000.00. My DH would have a cow! LOL. With him away, I've had to spend some money on cross fencing to make it easier to work the cattle. I'll have to make do with a rose systemic and Ortho Max's Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer this year.

BettyDee, if he had a cow YOU could afford the screen house Durn, everything is so expensive anymore. EVen the wood for the frames is rediculous. But we make do, don't we???

Wow...it is sure growing different. How did it do for you later in the season? Any blooms? Any pics??