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Mad Scientist cross

21 years ago

While looking at a web page on Dahlias I noticed this sentence, "As members of the large Sunflower family of plants (Asteraceae), dahlias are closely related to chrysanthemums, daisies, marigolds, zinnias, and dandelions.

Dandelions are in the sunflower family? It's all clear to me now: a wide cross between a giant sunflower and a dandelion. So, my neighbor gave his son a BB gun, eh? Let's see how he likes dandelions over 10 feet tall in that lawn he's been working on so much! [maniacal laughter]

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Comments (4)

keking
21 years ago
Long ago I read a kid's book -- maybe it was Henry Reed. The story involved a (quietly mad) scientist who had bred a giant plant. All the people were amazed at its stupendous size, but did not recognize it until it began to bloom. Ragweed!

Karl
mistercross
Original Author
21 years ago
I just realized that Giant (or Great) Ragweed is also in the Asteraceae family, and apparently can grow as tall as 15 feet in some locations.

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nightbloomincereus 7A noVA
20 years ago
The book was one of the Homer Price books. I got it as a kid in a summer book club.
keking
20 years ago
Thanks! I just did a library catalog search and found that Robert McCloskey was the creator of both Homer Price and Henry Reed. I really loved those books before I "graduated" into Sci Fi.

Karl

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