I'd keep a close eye on it. It could be the start of aster yellows.

could also have been some very minor damage to the growth bud.. just at the right moment in time.. to cause it to produce 3 buds ..

just about anything is possible with ma nature ... just when you think she is totally predictable.. bammo ... she throws something like this at you ..

ken

Deformation of the buds or flowers is one of the first symptoms of aster yellows. And the plant can look perfectly healthy otherwise.

I have a pow wow coneflower that is about 3 years old now and every year it has a doubled bud kind of fused together. It is a healthy looking plant with no signs of aster yellows. It's fascination which is most likely what yours is but it's always good to keep eye it just incase.

Just looked at the one that always had a fused bud and this year they are actually separated but u can see that there are 2 buds on one. I also have one that is elongated as you can see in pics. And they are healthy plants with no yellowing, green petals, stunting or the crazy growth from asters yellow. Plants can be like people I guess, not all perfect and I don't mind my crazy growing coneflowers,ill take it any day over aster yellows.

Jordan's photo shows a very advanced case. You want to catch aster yellows and remove the plant WAY before it gets to that point.

I was looking at my echinacea just yesterday- I rely heavily on them in my large perennial bed and I must have added ten new varieties last fall and rearranged many of them.

I'm seeing a lot of weirdness out there- blooms not the color I remember, weird buds and blooms. I have a really sinking feeling but if I take out everything suspect I'll have nothing left.

I'm already making mental notes about things to replace them with, but do I really need to remove everything suspect? Many of mine were tiny starts and the first year they are always a bit odd and have weirdly imperfect flowers, so it's hard to tell.

That rather depends on the cause of the weirdness. If it’s just fasciation there’s no need to do anything. Maybe make a separate post with pictures so people can see what you’re dealing with.

You are right by wanting to catch it early but abnormalities in a plant don't necessarily mean diseased. I have pulled several coneflower for having aster yellows and several for the smallest imperfections thinking it was. I decided not to pull my white ones after doing some research including on here and I'm glad I waited. I think many of mine had coneflower mites. I guess you have to weigh the risk. These are pics from Ohio State University that shows how similar the mite dam is compared to aster yellows. It goes to show there are other possibilities that cause abnormal growth.

Looks like a type of fasciation

If we could see the stem a the back of the flower we’d know if it is fasciation. Is it fused?

I do have another coneflower same kind not right next to this one that looks fine but has some yellow leaves I thought it was maybe and iron issue so added iron but still yellow I hope that's not asters I'll send a

The fused stems tell us it is fasciation, nothing more sinister.

Have you checked under the leaves for spider mites. Spider mites will cause yellowing. What type of coneflower is it. I ask because those petals look really light pink, I believe I did read somewhere that AY can cause faded flower color. For instance if that is a pow wow wild berry which is a deep pink and the blooms are very faded and washed out I would be concerned. Get a magnificent glass and check the underside of leaves for webbing or tiny black spots which is there waste or them. One of my phlox started to yellow from mites. I have it good spray of horticultural oil that worked. If that's the right color of that particular echinacea and you see evidence of mites than I would not worry. Here is a pic of what you should look for if you don't know.

its called premadonna rose coneflower I got it last year it was very tiny and only put on one bloom now its 3 feet with tons of blooms just starting to open I think its supposed to be a light color like that also I will look for mits I looked online for pictures of yellow leaves on coneflowers like mine but didn't really find

I would be crying to if that happened all the work that goes into planting and making our gardens beautiful and watching them grow it almost makes me want to take them out so I don't have to worry but I will just keep and eye on them for