‘Mutant’ Fukushima Daisies Seen Near Disabled Nuclear Power Plant

A photo of weird-looking daisies taken near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has gone viral, causing many to wonder if radiation from the power plant could have caused the malformation.

The daisies were photographed 173 kilometers away from the disabled power plant, which was damaged during the 2011 tsunami that rocked the area and caused radiation to leak. The picture was uploaded to Twitter in late May by @san_kaido, according to National Geographic.

Translated to English, the tweet reads "The right one grew up, split into 2 stems to have 2 flowers connected each other, having 4 stems of flower tied beltlike. The left one has 4 stems grew up to be tied to each other and it had the ring-shaped flower," according to Fukushima Diary.

The photo went viral, along with speculation that the daisies' malformation may have been caused by nuclear radiation coming from the plant. The radiation at the daisies' location at the time was recorded at 0.5 μSv/h.

However, as weird as the daisies may look, scientists say the mutation is actually common. While radiation is a possible factor, there may be other reasons for the daisies' unusual appearance.

"This is a pretty common mutation in daisies that I've seen sporadically in various places not associated with radioactivity," said Jeffrey J. Doyle, plant biology professor at Cornell University, National Geographic reports.

Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, said deformity in plants usually serves as a warning system that something is wrong with the plants' immediate environment, but sometimes, the changes in their appearance are caused by other reasons, such as disease, physical injury, insects or a simple random mutation, according to Christian Science Monitor.

The Fukushima daisies, he said, displayed fasciation, which is the banding or bundling of flower stems that causes them to look fused.

"Fasciation is a relatively common occurrence in the garden world. Radiation being present in the environment is a plausible explanation, but not necessarily the only explanation for the phenomenon," said Forrest, Christian Science Monitor reports.

Meanwhile, Twitter remains abuzz with various opinions on the Fukushima daisies, with some users making fun of the issue.

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Ecology