The images of deformed daisy flowers were posted by Twitter user @San_kaido from Nasushiobara city, in Tochigi prefecture located about 110kms (approx 70 miles) from Fukushima. The pictures posted are said to be of the Shasta daisy.
Reports suggest that the radiation from the leak was detected as far as 60 miles away from the plant, which melted down in 2011 after being hit by a powerful tsunami.
The tweet with the photo translates to: The right one grew up, split into 2 stems to have 2 flowers connected each other, having 4 stems of flower tied beltlike. The left one has 4 stems grew up to be tied to each other and it had the ring-shaped flower. The atmospheric dose is 0.5 μSv/h at 1m above the ground.
But gardening experts refute the speculation that nuclear leak has lead to deformation. According to reports, they have said that this abnormal growth is a result of fasciation. Fasciation is a rare ailment in vascular plants caused due to hormonal imbalance.
Most land plants' tip grow from the centre outwards as one point produces cylindrical tissue but with fasciation the tip grows outwards and becomes elongated from the point of growth, which produces the flat, longer looking flower head.
In 2011, a meltdown in three of Fukushima’s six nuclear reactors due to the tsunami which struck the region caused radiation leak affecting regions near the reactor and millions being evacuated.