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Green rudbeckia flowers #288808

Asked November 04, 2015, 3:25 PM EST

A self-seeded Rudbeckia in my garden has very double green flowers.  I can find pictures of single Rudbeckia with green petals(?) / sepals(?), but nothing that is so densely filled in as this.  The likely parents have single yellow or bronze flowers. Is this likely to be a genetic mutation/variant, or might it be due to some disease? 

Hennepin County Minnesota

Expert Response

This appears to be a virus called aster yellows. It affects many plants, many in the aster family, and is transferred by leaf hoppers that feed on plant tissue. Symptoms are flowers that are greenish-yellow and have a distorted. Flowers may have many dense petals or sometimes no petals at all. There is no cure for aster yellows except to purchase healthy plants and to dispose of infected plants. You should dig up these plants and burn them or throw them in the garbage.

Here is an Extension publication on aster yellows:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/diagnose/plant/annualperennial/echinacea/leavesdistorted.html

Thank you.  I have disposed of it. 
The Question Asker Replied November 04, 2015, 4:29 PM EST

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