Esther Chiltons prompt “Sport”

Sport in Botany defined by Wikipedia :

In botany, a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus,[2] is a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant. Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure. The cause is generally thought to be a chance genetic mutation.[3]

I saw a sport once. Eight or nine twigs on a forsythia bush, each fused to the next, like a pan pipe. It still had leaves and flowers. I was reading sci-fi books at the time, I was only young and found the strange formation almost creepy. I cut the sport off the bush and it never grew back. But I always remembered this sporting image!

Growing

It’s still growing, she shouted…

He stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up.

Oh, it’s pushed the top off the jar!

She ran down the stairs….

What have you been feeding it? She asked him.

Just nutrients, he said.

As he spoke, the stems pulsed and coiled. Pink and red cells seemed to glow. Each second the plant or creature was getting larger. Then like a coiled spring toy, a slinky, it tumbled down the stairs…

Run she said. As trailing vines skittered across the floor… But he was rooted to the spot, a tendril found his ankle.

She ran and slammed the door behind her….

Convolvulus

Lovely flowers on convolulus plant, they may look beautiful but the plant grows madly and scrambles over other plants. It entwines and strangles them. The stems grow long distances and the plant can smother a garden. I saw these at Bovisand Bay in Devon. The fly on them gives an idea of their scale. The leaves are heart shaped and block out the light to underlying plants. If you get it in your garden it takes a lot of work to remove it. If you leave a tiny bit of its white roots in the soil a whole new plant will grow from it.