Flat-stem phenotype

[Aji hombre]

So one of my fish pepper seedlings developed a weird twist early on, and here's the state of things now. As you can see, the stem is totally flat, but the lateral branches so far do not have the flat appearance. Is anyone familiar with this pheno?

I know most growers here would have culled this guy as a seedling, but since I've got an interest in developmental biology and since it's an ornamental (and what could be more visually appealing than a disfiguring developmental abnormality??) I decided to keep it. This would make for a very cool bonchi, if I were into that.

 

[fireface]

One of my fish peppers flattens out like that for one node length and resumes growing with a regular round stem. They are definitely a strange plant. Yours looks pretty cool, I'd definitely keep it growing

 

[synclinorium]

It happens periodically with all peppers. Wonky stem growth that seems as if the stem has duplicated itself, sometimes can result in the plant looking awfully deformed. That's certainly one of the better examples I've seen in recent memory, though at least it's not as bad as that one I remember of a Jalapeno that ended up having a stem 8 or 9 times the normal thickness, radiating outward in a fan-shape...

For the life of me, I still can't remember the technical name for it...

 

[Aji hombre]

Fasciated stem. I posted the pics on my facebook and one of my former biology students came up with the answer as well as a little explanation:

"A stem disorder called a fasciated stem. It is a hormonal disorder of the growing tip and can be found quite often in many different species. It can be caused by abiotic factors (frost, stress, pollution) or viruses and bacteria. It usually does not come back the following year."

 

[patrick]

Very cool.

It also looks like it was glued to the stem of something else just above the dirt level. You can still see the dripping Elmer's glue.

 

[mrz1988]

That's totally awesome. I always find some cool new screw ups from mother nature from you guys on this forum. Are the white streaks on the leaves characteristic of the Fish pepper? I've never grown it.

 

[Aji hombre]

yep on the variegation. This little plant has the works when it comes to defects. There's another thread going on right now about whether or not fish pepper is worth the space it occupies in the veggie patch. most seem to be saying no...