Why have stems squashed together?

Q: One of my plants has something wrong with it. It looks like the stems have been joined together and squashed. What is causing this to happen?

A: This is known as fasciation, a disorder that can obscurely crop up on any plant, with one stem usually affected, giving the appearance of multiple stems that have been fused together. Flower stems can also end up fused together.
Fasciation can be the result of numerous things; damage by frosts or insects or even a genetic hiccup. Fasciation is nothing to worry about and will not harm the plant; affected stems can simply be pruned out or you can leave them as a point of interest!