Oak Galls: Weird Things on My Oak Tree

I was just out wandering around doing nothing useful when I stopped to look at the oak tree. The new leaves are so pretty right now — that fresh light green before they get stressed by the heat of summer.

And then I noticed these. These weird lumps on my beautiful tree!!

Little round bumpy things. All over the stems, not every stem, but still!!! I stared. I poked one. Then I went inside and asked the internet.

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They’re called oak galls, also know as oak apples. And here’s an amazing little tidbit!

A tiny wasp lays an egg on the tree. The tree detects it and basically… builds a house around it. A little round house made of plant tissue. The baby wasp grows up inside, eating the walls, completely safe and cozy. The tree has no idea it’s even doing it.

Here is a quote from an article explaining them: “When adult flies or wasps lay the eggs on an oak tree, a strange mass usually forms around the hatching larvae. The gall that forms is in a way like a nursery for the larvae. The plant tissue of the gall provides nourishment for the larvae. It may offer rudimentary protection for the growing insect as well.  As the insect matures inside the gall, the gall grows to accommodate it. But when the gall dries out, it will fall off the oak tree, and the fly or wasp will generally fly out of its former home.” By Steve Dishman, Interpreter

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Here is an up-close, with Breeze’s nose, for scale….

Here it is cut open…I couldn’t smash it with my fingers…..

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It’s amazing! The tree just does it. No clue. Just quietly building tiny wasp nurseries all over itself.

The tree is fine, by the way. Galls don’t really hurt it. It’s just out there living it’s little double life — beautiful spring leaves on the outside, tiny secret nurseries tucked in the middle. 🙂

Apparently the little wasp or fly lays their eggs in early to late spring…when the leaves come out. I’m not totally sure of this version’s life cycle, but it is fascinating, however it works!!

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I ALWAYS walk by this tree….at least hundred times per summer and have never once seen them. I don’t know if this is the first year they’ve been there, or if I just wasn’t paying attention!? That’s the thing about slowing down and noticing. There’s always something interesting, if you bother to look.

Now I can’t walk past that tree without stopping to check on them.

Thanks for listening to my “discovery adventure.” Ha!

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Good Thoughts

“An oak tree is an oak tree. That is all it has to do. If an oak tree is less than an oak tree, then we are all in trouble.” – Nhat Hanh