While taking my dog for a walk recently at Chadwick Lake Park in the Town of Newburgh, I noticed something weird on the branches or a nearby oak tree. What I learned about them isn’t for the faint-of-heart.
While many of the recent changes at Chadwick Lake are man-made (check out the progress on their massive new community center here), the surrounding plants and animals are hard at work as well, including on the oak tree I found by the lake’s edge.
Gall Growths on Local New York Trees
I’ve encountered enough strange growths on local trees to recognize that I was looking at some sort of gall. While some are more extreme than others (have you heard of the “exploding heart” gall?), the growth I saw on the Chadwick Lake oak could be a sign od a specific type of wasp.
These galls could be a sign of one specific insect looking to make a home for its offspring (TSM Poughkeepsie)…