Mutant foxglove

[Pinkywoo]

I have lots of foxgloves in the garden but this one has self seeded on the path and is really weird! I actually quite like it, do you think it's offspring would have the same shape?

Maybe it's stunted from lack of light

I can’t see properly but is it like a wide flat ridged stem a bit like lots have grown together? If so it’s called fasciation and is quite common in foxgloves. (I found one in my mum’s garden once and she did botany at university so she told me all about it!)

I have had stunted weeds in areas of previous weed killer use.

Definitely not lack of light, it's in full sun most of the day. I'm not sure it is fasciation, I've had a Google and it doesn't look like that, but maybe there are different types?

No weed killer in the four years we've lived here.

Foxglove peloria? I’d definitely save some seeds and plant them to see what happens.
It’s lovely.

All the images I can find of peloria show a large round flower on the top so I don't think it's that, I'll definitely collect some seeds from it and see what they come out like!

It would look a lot prettier if my garden wasn't full of bastard snails

It looks as if the original flowering spike was damaged, and so all the secondary flowering spikes have grown.

Foxgloves do sometimes become multi stemmed. A couple of years ago I sowed some Excelsior variety, now their offspring are very interesting shades and variety.

@Pinkywoo
I know! Bloody slugs and snails. Hopefully you’ll find out what sort of mutation it is and let us know!

I suspect it is probably the slugs and snails that are to blame (I have the same problem). They will have likely damaged the plant in its early stages of growth so it has gone for damage limitation and created as many flowering stems as possible in the hopes that at least one of them gets left uneaten and allowed to produce seed

Yes, I think the slugs and snails have helpfully nipped out the main growing tip to give you this nice multistemmed effect.
It's a really nice colour too.

It is lovely (apart from the leaves!), I might collect the seeds just in case, but it sounds like it's not something that will pass on, thanks.

It had never occurred to me before, but I might in future try nipping the leading stem of foxgloves which spring up somewhere a shorter plant would look better.

Ooh that's pretty @WitchWindows, I'm jealous that yours has leaves without holes in!

I have a multi stemmed foxglove this year! It had one normal spike but now that's finished flowering it has developed several spikes lower down the stem, similar to yours. Weird, but nice. That's usual behaviour. But removing the main spike accelerates the process.