Oak apples

This is just a tiny oak tree seedling and yet it already has five oak galls! They are caused by gall wasps who lay their eggs into the oak and they secrete chemicals which cause these strange "oak apple" growths within which the wasp grub develops.

[Bep]

Nice shot. We call them gall apples.

[Rick]

Cool capture. Would have never thought they would have been from something like that.

[Diana]

that's amazing, never seen this before. Lovely shot.

[Suzanne]

I've never heard of these until I saw a post the other day. After looking it up I was really surprised a wasp could cause so much damage. A fascinating shot Julienne

[Ann Williams]

I've learned something new today - thank you Julienne. I had always assumed they were misshapen acorns.