Weird plant

I thought this was “vipers bugloss” but I’m no longer at all convinced by that. Even in the unwarped version. But this is an odd one. See how the stem has become flat, and the flower head all congested? I’d be interested to know what sort of oddity or gall this is, and also the True Name of the plant. Its a common weed or flower, depending on your viewpoint.

See-also: Forsythia, 2021.

Here is a pic showing the stem from the side, so you can see how flat its become. For comparison, here’s a normal one, with free bumblebee:

Here’s the whole clump, with free beehive:

The warped one is on the lefthand side. Here’s another oddly clubbed one (with free smaller beehive in background):

[Update: BrianO knows the secret. It is fasciation (sure ’nuff, live in a fever).]

For those of you cheated of your dose of climate snark, I recommend John Mashey on l’affair Salby which is well worth a good snark. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be anything to say that hasn’t been well said already, so I won’t.

Refs

* We don’t even know how many legs he’s got (go on, guess why this is relevant)