Giant oak galls: what's going on?
May 28, 2015 2:23 PM Subscribe
The trees in back of my condo seem to have several oak galls, but they're way larger than the internet is describing galls (oak apples) to me. What else could they be, and/or why are they so much bigger then they're supposed to be?
Details: I'm in the Portland (OR) area. The trees (about a half dozen or so) are overhanging my back yard from the neighboring property, and they seem to be oaks (I haven't tried to ID exactly what kind), about 30-ish feet tall. They all have what seem to be galls toward the end of their branches, about 5 to 10 per tree. They look very much look like large apples or pears from the ground.
One fell off yesterday and broke in half. I'll admit that I'm a bit spooked by it and haven't inspected it too much, but it looks a bit like a big and slightly misshapen Bartlett pear, with the outside being a light green-ish yellow and the inside being off-white-ish. The interior looks a bit rotten, but not in a smooshy fruit way.
I can post some pics when I get home this evening, but my main question is this: these seem like oak apples, but the internet is telling me that those are usually around ping-pong ball sized at the large end of the spectrum. These are the size of a large apple or pear, with all of them definitely as big as a baseball. Is there anything else they could be aside from galls?
Bonus details: there's a patch of dirt about 100 yards away that gets swarms of flying insects flying above the ground a couple times a year. Related ground wasps, possibly? I'm kind of squicked out by the whole situation, but figure knowing is better than not knowing.
Details: I'm in the Portland (OR) area. The trees (about a half dozen or so) are overhanging my back yard from the neighboring property, and they seem to be oaks (I haven't tried to ID exactly what kind), about 30-ish feet tall. They all have what seem to be galls toward the end of their branches, about 5 to 10 per tree. They look very much look like large apples or pears from the ground.
One fell off yesterday and broke in half. I'll admit that I'm a bit spooked by it and haven't inspected it too much, but it looks a bit like a big and slightly misshapen Bartlett pear, with the outside being a light green-ish yellow and the inside being off-white-ish. The interior looks a bit rotten, but not in a smooshy fruit way.
I can post some pics when I get home this evening, but my main question is this: these seem like oak apples, but the internet is telling me that those are usually around ping-pong ball sized at the large end of the spectrum. These are the size of a large apple or pear, with all of them definitely as big as a baseball. Is there anything else they could be aside from galls?
Bonus details: there's a patch of dirt about 100 yards away that gets swarms of flying insects flying above the ground a couple times a year. Related ground wasps, possibly? I'm kind of squicked out by the whole situation, but figure knowing is better than not knowing.
I have a bunch of galls on the trees near my place and they tend to be apple- to grapefruit-sized.
posted by jaguar at 2:45 PM on May 28, 2015
posted by jaguar at 2:45 PM on May 28, 2015
Sounds like a bog-standard oak gall to me. I could walk 10 feet out my office door and collect a grocery bag full of them.
One thing to be aware of: If you're the sort of person who thinks they're really cool, like I am, and you put a few on your desk at work because they're so cool, you will come into the office one day and find little piles of powder on your desk and several tiny holes in the gall. And when you explain to your horrified coworkers that no really, the little bitty oak gall wasps that hatched out of the gall are TINY and totally HARMLESS and this is all very cool because NATURE, they will look at you funny and edge away slowly and they will forever forward think you are very weird. Just a heads up.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:46 PM on May 28, 2015 [19 favorites]
One thing to be aware of: If you're the sort of person who thinks they're really cool, like I am, and you put a few on your desk at work because they're so cool, you will come into the office one day and find little piles of powder on your desk and several tiny holes in the gall. And when you explain to your horrified coworkers that no really, the little bitty oak gall wasps that hatched out of the gall are TINY and totally HARMLESS and this is all very cool because NATURE, they will look at you funny and edge away slowly and they will forever forward think you are very weird. Just a heads up.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:46 PM on May 28, 2015 [19 favorites]
A picture might help. I once had a coworker describe to me in great detail these weird growths all over a tree in the yard of the house she'd just moved into. I finally asked her to bring one to me, and it was an osage orange. So, you know, context cues are helpful but an image is more of an accepted gold standard when you can't walk up and see the thing.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 4:40 PM on May 28, 2015
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 4:40 PM on May 28, 2015
Your link is borked, but I found many images of osage orange, and that's totally what I was thinking of.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:49 PM on May 28, 2015
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:49 PM on May 28, 2015
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