Jean sent me a post in response to the June contest suggesting that I link to writteninc. Although I wasn’t initially sure, subsequent visits made me certain that I really like this site, so I made a link.
Carmi Levy posts some really interesting photos in his blog. He also encourages lots of interaction. This week he asked for others to post photos of green things. Here’s mine.
oak gall in its green state
It’s an oak gall, but in a state I’ve never seen them before this year. I found it on the ground while walking in my woods. Prior to this, I’ve only ever seen them in the fall, when they’re brown and the shell is hard. This one cracked open in its fall from the tree, so I HAD to peel it back a bit and see what was inside. What a rare treat!
If you know anything about these little living gems, please leave me a comment and clue me in.
6/23 update: My office mate just found a really cool site that has lots of info about these oak galls. What’s inside mine is, indeed, animal-based, caused by a parasitic wasp.
G – We have lots here, too, but I’ve only ever seen them dried before as well. This spring I found two of them, green, on the ground. A first for me.
We have lots of these among our oaks here in California, but I’ve only seen them dried.
I don’t think I’ve seen one of these before, so thanks for sharing and joining in 🙂
nice green photo!! I am pretty sure that most galls have something living in them by the time they are brown and hard.
Dennis – Thanks for looking. I’m sure galls usually have things living in them, but I always thought they were of the animal variety as opposed to the vegetable variety. If the innards of this are animal, it must be from Mars.