What is this (possibly tree-related) thing? We're dying to know.

Yesterday, SE MI, in the woods under primarily mature oak and maple trees. There were lots of these things on the ground, along with acorns. We saw acorns up in the oaks, but nothing even closely resembling these little spotted balls anywhere. I thought perhaps some type of fungus? But the trees in the area all looked healthy and we saw no evidence of them attached to anything else, either trees or ground cover. Just on the ground.

I cut some in half: dense, juicy, no odor. I’m also positive it’s not fungus.

Any ideas?

It’s a gall.

Keep them around long enough and you might see wasps coming out.

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/nature/2012/09/marbles-under-the-red-oak-tree/

I love galls. I found some awesome pink-spined turban galls on a valley oak here in the Bay area, put one in a jar and waited for the wasp to come on out. It was a teensy little thing, smaller than a fruit fly, solitary and harmless, unlike the yellowjackets most people think of when they hear “wasp.”

I look under the leaves of just about every oak tree I see now :slight_smile:

Huh, cool! Galls, and now I know what they are.
Also now I feel sort of badly for cutting them open. Sorry, little wasps.

galls are a wound to the tree. resins and tannins may gather there. these might be used for pigments.

Or they could just be “spotted balls” which are used as a garnish for spotted dick. :slight_smile:

If they weren’t so small I’d have said they are “dinosaur egg plouts”, a delicious plum-related (i believe) fruit. The"dinosaur egg" variety looks a heck of a lot like that.

You’d never be able to cut a plumcot exactly in half like that though.

Wikipedia has it wrong - Spotted Dick is made from suet not sponge.

Karma got me a couple of days ago, for cutting open that gall: Some sort of small, aggressive wasp chased and stung me on the ankle and it is still itchy and painful. I know those gall wasps don’t sting, but whatever it was, it was smaller than a yellow jacket and the sting was way worse than a yellow jacket sting.

From that page:

Well, I’ll be danged: Land Pearls!! :slight_smile: