FRANCES Stokes thought the Day of the Triffids had arrived when she spotted a weird plant growing at the bottom of her garden.

Ever year Frances, of Gilbert Road, Charford, Bromsgrove, has looked forward to using the attractive foliage from an asparagus plant that she had inherited seven years ago to decorate her home.

But this year the plant has produced just one thick stem with a cluster of ten tips fused together at the end.

Eyeing the strange mutation Frances said: "It's never happened before but the soil is very poor where the plant is growing and it is the spot where the builders stored their materials so that may have something to do with it."