It might look like a fermented kidney bean on a stick but this is actually a blueberry stem gall. Last summer a shiny black wasp called Hemadas nubilipennis damaged a bud while laying her eggs on a tender shoot. The plant responded by growing a kidney shaped gall around the eggs, and this is where the larvae will overwinter before emerging as adults in the spring. This plant was a highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) but this wasp isn’t choosy and will also use lowbush plants (Vaccinium angustifolium.) These galls do no real harm to the plants.
Witch’s broom on highbush blueberry is a deformity that causes a dense mass of shoots to grow from a single point. It’s not caused by an insect but by a fungus called Pucciniastrum goeppertianum. This fungus spends part of its life cycle on the needles of balsam fir (Abies balsamea) so bushes should never be planted near fir trees. When the fungus releases its spores and they land on the stems and leaves of the blueberry, the bush becomes infected. The fungus overwinters on the bush and in the spring again releases spores which will infect even more balsam fir trees, and the cycle begins again. The disease infects the entire plant so pruning off the witch’s broom won’t help. If you have a blueberry plantation and want to keep other plants from becoming infected then any bushes with witch’s broom need to be removed and destroyed.
The first recorded mention of ink made from oak galls and iron was by Pliny the Elder (23 -79 AD). Tannic acid extracted from fermented oak galls was mixed with scrap iron, gum arabic, and water, wine, or beer to make a dark black ink that was used for many centuries in virtually every country on earth. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Johannes Sebastian Bach, Victor Hugo, George Washington and countless others wrote, sketched, and composed with it. The Constitution of the United States was written with it and the U.S. Postal Service even had its own iron gall ink recipe. Chemically produced inks became widely available in the mid-20th century and oak galls went from being prized and sought after to those strange growths seen on forest walks.
If you can stand hearing about one more gall, the willow pine cone gall is an interesting one that isn’t seen that often. The parts of the willow that would have once been leaves were converted into a gall when a fly called a gall gnat midge (Rabdophaga strobiloides) laid an egg on its stem. The resulting larva released a chemical that convinced the willow to produce this gall rather than the leaves that it normally would have. The little pink larva rests inside all winter and emerges as an adult when the air temperature warms up in the spring.
Fishbone beard lichen (Usnea filipendula) is one of many different beard lichens that we have here in New Hampshire. It is a forest species that seems to prefer growing on spruce limbs and anyone who has ever deboned a bony fish like perch will understand where its common name comes from. The main branches are covered with shorter, stubby branches and the whole thing looks a lot like fish bones. One of the ways I find lichens in the winter is by picking up and looking at fallen tree branches. They almost always have lichens on them.
This powdered ruffle lichen (Parmotrema arnoldii) grew into a V as it followed the shape of the forked branch it grew on. This is a beautiful foliose lichen that I don’t see very often because it seems to grow high in the treetops and the only way that I can find it is by inspecting fallen branches. Features that help identify this lichen are the black hairs on the lobe margins, which are called cilia, and the black to brown undersides. There are several similar lichens with the same common name but different scientific names.
Sidewalk firedot lichen (Caloplaca feracissima) gets its common name from the way it likes to grow on concrete. In this photo it is growing on the concrete between the stones in a stone wall. If it is seen on stones it’s a good indication that they are limestone or contain some lime because this lichen almost always grows on calcareous substrates. Something unusual about it is how it is made up almost entirely of tiny, almost microscopic fruiting bodies (Apothecia) and doesn’t appear to have a thallus (body) like most lichens. Firedot lichens can be red, orange, or yellow. There are also granite firedot lichens (Caloplaca arenaria) and sulfur firedot lichens (Caloplaca flavovirescens).
A couple of posts ago I talked about frost cracks on trees. Here’s a severe example on a gray birch which probably happened a year or two ago and never healed and which, in this case, will probably kill the tree. Frost cracks happen when the sun warms the tree during the day and the temperature drops quickly at night.
Frost cracks can heal in the summer when the tree produces a new layer of inner bark to heal the wound but then can crack again in winter. When this repeated healing and cracking happens over the course of a few years the buildup of new tissue can create a frost rib like that seen in the photo. It almost looks as if a young tree has somehow grown onto the side of an older tree but that’s only because of the differences in the age of the bark, which of course is much younger on the healed frost crack.
Thanks very much to Michael Wojtech’s book Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast for helping me identify and understand this process. If you are serious about nature study this book is a must have.
Though it might seem like polypody fern fronds curl in response to the cold in winter, it is really dryness that makes them curl. Polypody ferns are one of a few vascular plants that can rehydrate after drying, much like non vascular lichens and mosses do. Once the soil thaws they will begin to once again absorb water and will return to normal. When they curl like this it’s a good time to study the spore cases (sori) on the leaf undersides, and a good time to reflect on how dry winter soil can be even though it might be covered by 3 feet of snow.
Long, rectangular holes with rounded corners are made by a pileated woodpecker, probably looking for carpenter ants. It’s hard to tell which woodpecker made the round holes but I’m guessing it was the same pileated woodpecker because they were quite big.
One of the smaller woodpeckers made these holes; maybe a hairy woodpecker. They looked fairly fresh and there were wood chips on the snow so I probably scared this one away.
The tips of the bud scales on American beech buds (Fagus grandifolia) show just a small hint of the gray, hairy edges that will be on the leaves to come. It is thought that these leaf hairs keep caterpillars and other insects from eating the newly opened leaves, but they also make them something worth watching for. The long feathery hairs disappear quickly once the leaf opens, so you have only a short time to see how very beautiful they are.
I don’t usually reuse photos but since I was on the subject of how beautiful beech buds are when they break I thought that a picture might be worth a thousand words. This is one of the most beautiful things that you’ll ever see in a New England forest in my opinion, and it is just one reason I spend so much time in the woods. It won’t be so very long before we see them again-this was taken in late April last year, just when the spring beauties bloomed.
Natural objects themselves, even when they make no claim to beauty, excite the feelings, and occupy the imagination. Nature pleases, attracts, delights, merely because it is nature. We recognize in it an Infinite Power. ~ Karl Humboldt
Thanks for coming by.
The beech leaf bud is a beautiful photograph, I haven’t really looked at one that close. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. They really are beautiful and worth a closer look. It probably won’t be too long before you’ll see them there, I wouldn’t think.
I hope you get to see your new leaves soon. I’m also glad I don’t have any galls or fungi in my garden.
I hope so too!
Galls don’t usually hurt the plant but fungi on live trees isn’t good.
Who knew galls and blueberry bushes were so fascinating! The “morse code” design of the woodpeckers was perfect. My blueberries are low bush but I have seen the witches broom and wondered if merely pruning would fix the problem.
Not sure how it is pronounced but the pileated woodpecker is my favorite, a perfect “Woody Woodpecker” cartoon creature.
I hadn’t thought of that but you’re right! The dot dash design does look like Morse code.
I’ve always pronounced pileated as pill-ee-ay-tid. it means “having a pileus or cap,” in this case a red one, just like Woody.
That is how I learned to pronounce it but others have corrected me with Pile-late-ted…
It’s the old tomato tomahto thing again. It’s really just personal preference.
Who would have thought to make ink from an oak gall? But then, people back in the old days knew more than we did about many things in nature, they had to in order to survive. Like using the tannins in oak to tan leather to make the leather usable.
The beech leaves are gorgeous, I’ll be looking for them once spring arrives come May or June. 😦
Thanks Jerry! That’s true, the ancients were much more in tune with nature than we are. It was the tannins in oak that they were after for the ink. I wonder if tanning leather might have led to that.
I’m hoping spring shows up right on time! We’re finally seeing mid 30s in the forecast.
Fascinating, as always. You are right about the beauty of the beech bud when it opens. It is exquisite!
Thanks Montucky!
I missed seeing those new beech leaves myself for a lot of years. They’re as pretty as any flower.
The lichens and the beech leaves are so beautiful! Thank-you for all the interesting information on galls too. Those long rectangular woodpecker holes are amazing. I don’t believe we get anything like them in Britain – all the holes I see are round.
You’re welcome Clare, and thank you. Pileated woodpeckers are big birds, easily as big as a crow with bright red ‘hair’ so you would know if you had ever seen one. They are also very loud and you can hear them drumming on trees from quite a distance. They’re smart too; I saw one on a tree one day and it kept me going around and around the tree it was on for a good half hour, and I never did get a decent photo.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the beech buds as spring arrives there!
Thank-you Allen, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for signs of bud-break!
Appreciated the information on galls as well as lichens, I am always trying to understand this better. The photos were really helpful.
Thank you Charlie, I’m glad to hear it. Lichens take a while to get to know!
Those woodpeckers must have been really hungry.
I know, those were deep holes. That white pine tree is soft wood though.
Err…emmm… that first object was revolting at first glance. Then I looked again, and read what you said about it, and it looked…. err… less so.
As for the woodpeckers – gee: the pileated one makes such carpenter-like holes – very neat. And the small woodpecker: not so much.
I don’t design them, I just take their pictures. I agree though, that as galls go blueberry stem gall isn’t one of the prettiest.
Pileated woodpeckers do make a neat hole but you should see all the wood chips at the base of the tree!
Wow, those pilleated woodpeckers don’t fool around. I guess I should stop wishing I could see them in the garden. I have never seen witches broom on a blueberry. I thought this disease was not really harmful to the health of the plant. I have a western hackberry tree that gets witches broom which I prune out.
I don’t think a pileated woodpecker would bother your trees unless they were diseased already.
Just for the fun of it I left a witch’s broom on a blueberry for a couple of years and it didn’t affect the crop at all, so I don’t think witch’s broom really amounts to anything. But, if you have a pick your own blueberry patch I can see them turning people off because they are unsightly to those who don’t understand them.
I am so glad you included that final photograph, what a thing of beauty it is.
Thank you Susan. I think there are going to be a lot of people inspecting beech trees this spring!
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thank you Agnes, and have a great week!
You’re very welcome, Allen. Wishing you a beautiful week too, Allen. Namaste
Huh – who knew that oak galls were used in ink? Interesting! Thanks for sharing the fuzzy beech bud photo. It is beautiful. I’ll have to be on the lookout this spring
You’re welcome, and thank you. Yes, beech and many other buds are really beautiful as they open. It’s worth a look!
It’s the tannin in the oak galls that helps make the ink, but I wonder if they couldn’t have also used leaves or bark.
It’s amazing that humans managed to figure out how to make ink using oak galls. Lot’s of trial and error I guess.
I wondered about the thought process that brought them to that point too. When I see an oak gall, I don’t think of making ink.
Beautiful set of photos! I am particularly intrigued by the witches broom. There is a lot of cultivated and wild blueberries in RI but I have never seen this (maybe I need to look harder!)
Thank you! It could be that you don’t have any fir trees to act as hosts for the fungus. I’m not sure about other firs but I doubt balsam fir grows naturally that far south.
Your knowledge and ability to discover things of interest and often great beauty. seems inexhaustible.
Thank you Ben. It’s really just a matter of knowing where to look and retraining our eyes and minds to see and pay attention to small things. It’s not hard once you get used to it!
A lovely post as usual and I learn so much from you…I can’t wait for my neighbours beech to come into leaf now …we’ve lived here 30 + years and I can’t believe I’ve not looked closely at them …thank you .
You’re welcome Sue, and thank you. I hope you do get a look at your neighbor’s beech tree. The new leaves are really beautiful. I think we all miss them and a lot of other things. I went for many years without seeing them too!
I was especially intrigued by your discussion of the historical uses of oak gall ink, but enjoyed your photos and explanations of the other galls and lichens too. I too have seen holes in trees similar to the ones you attributed to Pileated Woodpeckers, but have never been able to catch them in the act of creating them. On the rare occasions when I see them, the Pileateds Woodpeckers seem to always be working high in the trees. Winter plants are interesting, but I can’t wait for the signs of spring to appear.
Thanks Mike. I’ve never seen a pileated woodpecker making a hole either but I’ve found plenty of shredded trees in the forest that let me know they were there. It’s amazing what those birds can do to a tree! That hole in the photo was about 20-25 feet up.
I can’t wait to see some spring plants either. We’re finally seeing mid 30 degree temperatures in the forecast, so it’ll happen.