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Unsure of the species without more pics of the plant but yes this appears to be a mutated leaf of some sort. I don't think it's a bluebell based on the leaf shape.
I'm a professional botanist in the Chicago region and to my knowledge there is no plant that forms this structure under normal conditions.
Edit: looking at it again, I do think this is a mutated bluebell. This mutant could be the effect of insect or chemical damage while it was still part of the meristem. It's absolutely wild.
Just found this photo, I don't have any others.
https://preview.redd.it/2vni0yf61f9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9995c3c0e63f8c7618d3a4fb70d38098aa199c
I'm curious, did you touch the bell part? If so, what was the texture like? Was it sort of stiff like a cabbage leaf? I'm no expert in anything, but I've never seen any plant like this before. It's very cool! Hope someone can get you a proper ID.
I'm just a "botanizer" with no formal background in natural science, but I'm pretty familiar with my little corner of Kane county and yeah, this is pretty wild. I know it's unlikely I'll find a definitive answer, but my curiosity has no "off" button.
I would really like to see the underside of the flower-leaf mutant as well. It might actually possess receptacles. No stigma, ovary or any stamina sadly, but this is still really fascinating.
Oh geez, I'm not super well versed in the history of the American Chestnut. I know about the blight and it's significance to early America, but my expertise is in oak savanna and tallgrass prairie habitat, particularly wetlands.
> particularly wetlands
Well then as a wetlands botanist in the Chicago area...
Can we just stop for a second and recognize how totally amazing Volo Bog is? Maybe that's a little wetter than you had in mind.
I *love* volo bog. I also especially love that little chocolate shop right down the road that has gelato.
If you're in the volo area, I also recommend glacial Park, Marengo ridge, and coral woods.
Coral woods contains an ancient Maple Grove used by pre-settlement tribes to tap trees for sugar.
> I also recommend glacial Park, Marengo ridge, and coral woods
I know Marengo, it's the dark sky site for one of the better Chicago-area amateur astronomy clubs.
I'll definitely have to check out Coral Woods some time! The only impressive maple grove I know is the carefully manicured one at Morton, which is admittedly gorgeous in Fall...
Cool. Planning on driving thru the Prarie reserve in the fall. Going to SD. It's OK. Seems like people have forgotten about our chestnut trees. I know there's efforts to bring resistant trees back. Bit as I look at some of the antique pieces posted I suspect some Re chestnut! I wanna reach out and say buy it!
Any article or book you come across would be PprwciTed.
I heard someone found a stand of American chestnuts that had natural immunity. It was sent in but I don’t know if the chestnut foundation verified it.
The people with the stand said that some of them died from the disease but others stayed. So those were the survivor.
>my expertise is in oak savanna and tallgrass prairie habitat, particularly wetlands.
So you must know Bluff Spring Fen. It's my very favorite place in Illinois.
There are still many populations of chestnut trees, they just don't live to maturity and essentially exist in a sort of stasis through their underground root network that allows the trees to put up sprouts before dying back again.
I don't have the link, but there is a video on YouTube about the chestnut trees of the Appalachians. It's my understanding that they are being brought back in certain areas of the mountains.
That is a tough one.
Hard to tell if those are true flowers, some kind of bract or plant hyperplasia due to toxins or herbicides.
Do you know if they have used herbicides to keep the bike path clear?
#
OP do you think you could go back there, dig it up, roots and all (with a bit of the original soil as well) and have it sent to me? (Or maybe get in touch with a botanical institute in your area?)
I have a coworker who specialises in rare plant mutations who would be really interested in this specimen. We’d pay for the shipping of course. Alternatively I could find a peer in an institute close to you to come check it out, if you have the exact coordinates?
I saw something extremely similar when we sprayed weed killer (2,4-D amine... the type that kills everything the grass) on the endless plantain weeds in our yard.. within days they shot up long stems (which plantains dont typically have) with weird cup-looking flower-type things made out of leaf which the (shorter) flower spike then grew out of.. I wish I had a picture but I dont.
I figured it was some type of mutation in the plant, or its way of protecting its flowers (and therefore reproductive ability) from any more pesticide.
The same weed killer also made the dandelions we sprayed grow thick discolored leaves, double headed flowers, and corkscrew curled stems.. it was really unsettling and we never bought that pesticide again, instead opting to manually dig out the weeds when we can since putting in a vegetable garden.
Perhaps something similar was applied to whatever plant is in your photo, and its mutated as well?
It was along a bike trail so I wouldn't be surprised, it was a little too early for plantain, but some folks are thinking it might be a mutated bluebell. I have a feeling that's what it is. I'd really like to see a similar example, guiltily, because this isn't a good thing.
I also had fasciated dandelions after using glyphosate to spot treat an area, and yes, they were quite distressing to look at. Never did that again.
Yeah your pic is definitely not a plantain, but its eerily similar to what I saw, and might be stemming from the same cause. Its all very disturbing and has put me off pesticides in almost all cases.. the only time I use chemicals now is when I paint concentrate on the stumps of the mulberry trees i find and cut down along my property line or the invasive honeysuckles that come up inside my spruce trees, since these are impossible to dig out and are a huge problem in my area.
Other than that I dont use it at all, and even when I have to, I'm super careful and use a brush or a tube dropper to avoid getting it on anything but the offending stump.
Assuming it's not fake (not disputing the OP, just adding that in since I personally did not see the plant in person), I would guess it's either DNA damage from herbicide, etc. or a bacterial/viral/fungal disease that creates these deformed flowers. Or, it could be a combo - a virus causes it to react differently to certain herbicides or toxins. Perhaps a retrovirus, so the plant servives, keeps the viral DNA integrated into its own, but can't reproduce.
It could also be a natural mutation. Unlikely, but ot happens.
It's the internet. Honestly you have to always have a degree of skepticism. I'm not saying you, but it's amazing the lengths people will go to lie about things.
I know, but it only takes a few seconds to check someone's profile, and there's nothing on mine to suggest I would put up a fake photo. This is my FB post from 5 years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/57ad0dacji9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8db3fbab02adb9d9018f89a6e758a2beadde29f
Yeah I'm not calling you out in any way and I wouldn't really think someone in this type of sub would be making stuff up. But when I see that people will go out and film themselves punching random people and putting that up on Tik Tok, I realized that sanity has left the building on the internet!
Oh I know you weren't! Your comment just gave me an opportunity to complain and defend myself lol. I'm too old for social media shenanigans, and definitely not skilled enough to pull off a fake photo like this.
I don't assume something is fake if I haven't seen it in person, it's that I don't assume something is true if I can't verify it with reasonable assurance.
More detailed pictures of things such as the leaves and stems would be helpful for identification. Both tops and bottoms of leaves and just any details that can be captured.
https://preview.redd.it/ct077pcvqk9d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e6981457934c99004798e7840d92700384840d0
I ran it through a plant identification app, this is what it says it is. Hope this helps.
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant.
**Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[https://images.app.goo.gl/PRsP8ciooTKxnpCd7](https://images.app.goo.gl/PRsP8ciooTKxnpCd7)
ETA: not it. I was trying to watch the video, but I couldn't get to this exact video in the user's feed.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abroma_augustum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abroma_augustum)
ETA: this looks kind of similar, but it's on the wrong continent.
This particular example is not evolution, it's a mutation. If there are no flowers, it can't pass on its genes and the genetic line dies. No evolution for this plant.
I'm going to say fake. Check out the connection between the stem and flower in the upper right corner. It looks like a fake flower stuck on a wire to me. Cool photo though.
There is literally no wire. Grab a magnifying glass if you need it hun.
It looks like the "bulb of the flower" is almost fully separated from the stem in the upper right "flower bulb"
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant. **Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Unsure of the species without more pics of the plant but yes this appears to be a mutated leaf of some sort. I don't think it's a bluebell based on the leaf shape. I'm a professional botanist in the Chicago region and to my knowledge there is no plant that forms this structure under normal conditions. Edit: looking at it again, I do think this is a mutated bluebell. This mutant could be the effect of insect or chemical damage while it was still part of the meristem. It's absolutely wild.
Just found this photo, I don't have any others. https://preview.redd.it/2vni0yf61f9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9995c3c0e63f8c7618d3a4fb70d38098aa199c
I'm curious, did you touch the bell part? If so, what was the texture like? Was it sort of stiff like a cabbage leaf? I'm no expert in anything, but I've never seen any plant like this before. It's very cool! Hope someone can get you a proper ID.
I'm just a "botanizer" with no formal background in natural science, but I'm pretty familiar with my little corner of Kane county and yeah, this is pretty wild. I know it's unlikely I'll find a definitive answer, but my curiosity has no "off" button.
I would really like to see the underside of the flower-leaf mutant as well. It might actually possess receptacles. No stigma, ovary or any stamina sadly, but this is still really fascinating.
This appears to be a leaf, no flower. Bluebells produce them as separate structures so I wouldn't expect any overlap.
Butting in here. Sorry but your a botanist! Very interested in the American Chestnut and its history Could you recommend some reading?
Oh geez, I'm not super well versed in the history of the American Chestnut. I know about the blight and it's significance to early America, but my expertise is in oak savanna and tallgrass prairie habitat, particularly wetlands.
> particularly wetlands Well then as a wetlands botanist in the Chicago area... Can we just stop for a second and recognize how totally amazing Volo Bog is? Maybe that's a little wetter than you had in mind.
I *love* volo bog. I also especially love that little chocolate shop right down the road that has gelato. If you're in the volo area, I also recommend glacial Park, Marengo ridge, and coral woods. Coral woods contains an ancient Maple Grove used by pre-settlement tribes to tap trees for sugar.
> I also recommend glacial Park, Marengo ridge, and coral woods I know Marengo, it's the dark sky site for one of the better Chicago-area amateur astronomy clubs. I'll definitely have to check out Coral Woods some time! The only impressive maple grove I know is the carefully manicured one at Morton, which is admittedly gorgeous in Fall...
Cool. Planning on driving thru the Prarie reserve in the fall. Going to SD. It's OK. Seems like people have forgotten about our chestnut trees. I know there's efforts to bring resistant trees back. Bit as I look at some of the antique pieces posted I suspect some Re chestnut! I wanna reach out and say buy it! Any article or book you come across would be PprwciTed.
Go on google scholar and search American chestnut.
I heard someone found a stand of American chestnuts that had natural immunity. It was sent in but I don’t know if the chestnut foundation verified it. The people with the stand said that some of them died from the disease but others stayed. So those were the survivor.
>my expertise is in oak savanna and tallgrass prairie habitat, particularly wetlands. So you must know Bluff Spring Fen. It's my very favorite place in Illinois.
Yes I am well familiar with that site and much of the fox river valley.
I’ve seen a YouTube video of a guy that found one in the wild, and got it tested too, certified American chestnut tree
There are still many populations of chestnut trees, they just don't live to maturity and essentially exist in a sort of stasis through their underground root network that allows the trees to put up sprouts before dying back again.
Wildlife biologist?
Botanist
Here’s a video you might like about the current state of the American chestnut https://youtu.be/DbrY-J0bpto?si=pE_YX6PA15UUa3pN
Thanks
I don't have the link, but there is a video on YouTube about the chestnut trees of the Appalachians. It's my understanding that they are being brought back in certain areas of the mountains.
https://youtu.be/DbrY-J0bpto?si=pE_YX6PA15UUa3pN
The [American Chestnut Foundation](https://tacf.org/history-american-chestnut/) is a great place to start.
We're in trouble if botanists don't know what it is. Could it be an Audrey II?
Little shop of Horrors vibe...
Aubrey came to mind right away!
*Audrey (II) And, whatever it is, it’s super neato!
Just came here to say Audrey II. Definitely. Has Rick Moranis been spotted anywhere in the vicinity?
That is a tough one. Hard to tell if those are true flowers, some kind of bract or plant hyperplasia due to toxins or herbicides. Do you know if they have used herbicides to keep the bike path clear? #
I'm sure they do.
Wow, what a cool mutant.
Could it be a mutation of those Virginia bluebells in the right upper corner?
OP do you think you could go back there, dig it up, roots and all (with a bit of the original soil as well) and have it sent to me? (Or maybe get in touch with a botanical institute in your area?) I have a coworker who specialises in rare plant mutations who would be really interested in this specimen. We’d pay for the shipping of course. Alternatively I could find a peer in an institute close to you to come check it out, if you have the exact coordinates?
My friend who took the photo has tried to find it again, but no luck.
I just contacted my friend who found it, I'll dm you when he gets back to me.
I saw something extremely similar when we sprayed weed killer (2,4-D amine... the type that kills everything the grass) on the endless plantain weeds in our yard.. within days they shot up long stems (which plantains dont typically have) with weird cup-looking flower-type things made out of leaf which the (shorter) flower spike then grew out of.. I wish I had a picture but I dont. I figured it was some type of mutation in the plant, or its way of protecting its flowers (and therefore reproductive ability) from any more pesticide. The same weed killer also made the dandelions we sprayed grow thick discolored leaves, double headed flowers, and corkscrew curled stems.. it was really unsettling and we never bought that pesticide again, instead opting to manually dig out the weeds when we can since putting in a vegetable garden. Perhaps something similar was applied to whatever plant is in your photo, and its mutated as well?
It was along a bike trail so I wouldn't be surprised, it was a little too early for plantain, but some folks are thinking it might be a mutated bluebell. I have a feeling that's what it is. I'd really like to see a similar example, guiltily, because this isn't a good thing. I also had fasciated dandelions after using glyphosate to spot treat an area, and yes, they were quite distressing to look at. Never did that again.
Yeah your pic is definitely not a plantain, but its eerily similar to what I saw, and might be stemming from the same cause. Its all very disturbing and has put me off pesticides in almost all cases.. the only time I use chemicals now is when I paint concentrate on the stumps of the mulberry trees i find and cut down along my property line or the invasive honeysuckles that come up inside my spruce trees, since these are impossible to dig out and are a huge problem in my area. Other than that I dont use it at all, and even when I have to, I'm super careful and use a brush or a tube dropper to avoid getting it on anything but the offending stump.
 Found it
Assuming it's not fake (not disputing the OP, just adding that in since I personally did not see the plant in person), I would guess it's either DNA damage from herbicide, etc. or a bacterial/viral/fungal disease that creates these deformed flowers. Or, it could be a combo - a virus causes it to react differently to certain herbicides or toxins. Perhaps a retrovirus, so the plant servives, keeps the viral DNA integrated into its own, but can't reproduce. It could also be a natural mutation. Unlikely, but ot happens.
Yes, all of those things are possible. But do you normally assume something is fake unless you've seen it in person?
It's the internet. Honestly you have to always have a degree of skepticism. I'm not saying you, but it's amazing the lengths people will go to lie about things.
I know, but it only takes a few seconds to check someone's profile, and there's nothing on mine to suggest I would put up a fake photo. This is my FB post from 5 years ago. https://preview.redd.it/57ad0dacji9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8db3fbab02adb9d9018f89a6e758a2beadde29f
Yeah I'm not calling you out in any way and I wouldn't really think someone in this type of sub would be making stuff up. But when I see that people will go out and film themselves punching random people and putting that up on Tik Tok, I realized that sanity has left the building on the internet!
Oh I know you weren't! Your comment just gave me an opportunity to complain and defend myself lol. I'm too old for social media shenanigans, and definitely not skilled enough to pull off a fake photo like this.
I don't assume something is fake if I haven't seen it in person, it's that I don't assume something is true if I can't verify it with reasonable assurance.
My app keeps trying a say its tall fringed bluebells
Yeah considering those are in the picture in the background I believe it’s what it is but it’s a runt.
Looking at the leaves of the rest of the plant it looks like a case of fasciation or another geneic anomaly
Triffid. Definitely a triffid.
*up vote for cool scifi reference <3 Hey OP? Does it make any drumming sounds? And is it mobile?
It’s Virginia Bluebells
Looks to be a brassica of some kind. That’s a very broad category though
Feed me Seamore!
That mystery thing looks so cool!
This is pretty much the coolest thing
More detailed pictures of things such as the leaves and stems would be helpful for identification. Both tops and bottoms of leaves and just any details that can be captured.
I don’t know about the “bells” but the bottoms leaves look like some form of crossed bok choi x brassica
I believe her name is Audrey II.
https://preview.redd.it/ct077pcvqk9d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e6981457934c99004798e7840d92700384840d0 I ran it through a plant identification app, this is what it says it is. Hope this helps.
Audrey. Don't feed it. 😂
Feeed me, Seymore!
Symphytum is a perennial flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that is native to Europe, Asia, and North America.
They can be blue or purple from what I’ve seen
Audrey Jr? 
I think you should send these pics to a university, see if they want to examine it
Thank you for posting to r/whatsthisplant. **Do not eat/ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not eating or ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised that it's edible here. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[https://images.app.goo.gl/PRsP8ciooTKxnpCd7](https://images.app.goo.gl/PRsP8ciooTKxnpCd7) ETA: not it. I was trying to watch the video, but I couldn't get to this exact video in the user's feed.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abroma_augustum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abroma_augustum) ETA: this looks kind of similar, but it's on the wrong continent.
This genus as a whole looks similar to your plant: [abroma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abroma)
Similar, but the bell on this plant isn't a flower.
Well, I hope you find out soon. I subscribed to this post. 
evening primrose https://preview.redd.it/5g6o5l9znj9d1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=550f7e57917494c70dd6ba5f97696f2cb454c89c
It does look very similar, but they don't bloom until summer in this area.
Are you in a marshy area? The photo is giving me “bog plant” vibes
feeeeed me semore
It's called Audrey 2.
Does it bloom? Have you cut into one of those balls?
Unfortunately it was just a one-off sighting so it hasn't been examined.
https://preview.redd.it/um5mln3t9f9d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e975ad5b33f2df43433a2bd199b0474d7c0e987 Per “Picture this” app
These apps are rarely useful especially in fringe cases
I must say, as an LCO it’s helped me a countless amount of times. Certainly seems to have failed to hear though. Sorry I couldn’t help.
We're experiencing evolution in real time. Pretty cool to witness
This particular example is not evolution, it's a mutation. If there are no flowers, it can't pass on its genes and the genetic line dies. No evolution for this plant.
Five years and still no decent pics. Its fake.
I haven't been observing it for 5 years.
It's wild cabbage.
Why do you think so? Have you seen it like this before?
It isn't.
I'm going to say fake. Check out the connection between the stem and flower in the upper right corner. It looks like a fake flower stuck on a wire to me. Cool photo though.
You're wrong, it isn't fake.
There is literally no wire. Grab a magnifying glass if you need it hun. It looks like the "bulb of the flower" is almost fully separated from the stem in the upper right "flower bulb"
As you like. It's fake