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An image of malformed daisies left some people blaming the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and experts offering up explanations for the oddly shaped flowers.
Twitter user @san_kaido took the picture of the mishaped flowers about 100 miles from the power plant and posted it in May. The image recently went viral.
The flower mutation is common, however, and has been seen sporadically across the world, Jeffrey J. Doyle, a plant biology professor at Cornell, told National Geographic.
Chemicals, disease, hormone imbalance and mutations to inherited genes are factors that could cause the flowers to grow that way, Doyle said.
Radiation levels in that area are only slightly above normal and are classified as safe for medium-to long-term habitation, according to National Geographic.
If more plants were found in the area with mutations that would make a stronger connection, he said.\
Other botanists agree.
"It's not that rare," Beth Krizek, plant biologist at University of South Carolina, told National Geographic. "You could occasionally see this just in plants growing in your garden."
The deformity is called fasciation, Krizek said to the Huffington Post.
“I don’t think people should freak out. They’re not that unusual,” she said.
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