What’s going on with this clasping coneflower?

This odd development is an area of malformed tissue known as fasciation. Most often found in the tips of stems, leaves, and flowers, fasciation occurs at the site of cell division. It’s not contagious, and is usually only found on one area of an individual plant. Re-occurrence the following year is also rare, and, ultimately, this is not an issue to worry about. We still aren’t sure exactly what causes fasciation, although the current consensus is that there are multiple causes, including both bacterial and viral infections, damage from insect feeding, spontaneous genetic mutation, and environmental anomalies, like frost or herbicide damage.