Oak Apples Anyone

The Merriam-Webster definition of an oak apple is, "a large round gall produced on oak leaves and twigs by a gall wasp (especially Amphibolips confluenta)".



These pictures are two of the many oak apples that we have dangling from the oak trees in our yard. I've recently learned that JoAnne enjoys squeezing and popping these things and used to do this as a kid too. Perhaps, there is some therapeutic value in this. Who would have thunk...



Oak Apples Information from the Internet -
Oak apples or galls are spheres, about the size of golf balls or slightly smaller, green and mottled with red. Galls are the protective nurseries for young insects, usually given the quaint name "oak apples." The mother insect enlists the help of oak trees to shelter her growing offspring. Known as the oak gall wasp, the tiny non-stinging insect deposits her egg in the flesh of an oak leaf. Along with the egg is a hormone that induces the oak tree to form a gall around the wasp egg. The larva develops within a shield of plant material, a capsule suspended in the center of the orb. At least 200 species of organisms use oak trees to form galls of one kind or another. Galls cause very little damage to the host plant, and gall wasps are not considered to be serious pests. The gall is not an impregnable fortress, and many predators recognize wasp galls as sources of food. If the gall wasp larva escapes all these predators and survives to adulthood, it chews its way out, leaving a small neat hole in the papery gall, which falls with the leaves of autumn.