Nestled inside a regular bouquet a Western Australian woman has found something rare and remarkable, a flower growing inside another.
A genetic mutation has caused a tiny flower to sprout inside the yellow gerbera which was purchased at a supermarket in Busselton, in WA's south-west.
Liana Taylor said she was surprised to find the flower inside a bunch she had received from her mother on her birthday.
"I was looking through one day and I was actually pulling out the dead ones and I came across that one and I was in shock," she said.
"I had never seen a flower within a flower before and it was just amazing."
Ms Taylor said she pressed the flower into a book in hopes of preserving it as long as possible.
A rare bloom
The executive of Flowers Australia, Shane Holborn, said it was an unusual find.
"It's pretty rare, I'd say it's one-in-100,000," he said.
Mr Holborn said while genetic mutations affect most plants, this was something special.
He said genetic mutations lead to all different types of flowers, even changing the shape or colour.
"I've got a bougainvillea out the back, it's a white bougainvillea and every year without fail somewhere on there it throws one purple flower out," he said.
Similar multi-centred flowers have already sparked the interest of flower breeders in Europe who have used genetically mutated roses to produce a new variety.
"They've the selected the flowers from the plants that have done that and over time they've managed to get a distinct, uniform and stable variety," Mr Holborn said.
"It appears to be one or two or three rose heads within a rose head, so it's actually quite stunning."
He said it would be interesting to see the result of genetic selection in other flowers, including gerberas.
