Oak Knopper Gall
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Oak Knopper Gall by Alan Murray-Rust as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Oak Knopper Gall
Image: © Alan Murray-Rust Taken: 8 Sep 2014
I hadn't come across this particular gall previously. This particular tree was seriously infested, but apparently infestation is not considered to be a threat to oak in general as the life cycle of the wasp concerned relies on the presence of the Turkey Oak as well, and this is largely confined to parkland planting. I thought to begin with that the black bits were some sort of insect, but the photograph shows that they are not. They appear to be the rough bits off the acorn cup adhering to the sticky surface of the gall. See Lairich Rig's image for a detailed account http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/938783
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.91023
Longitude
-1.167404