Gall Time with Teale

Trail Wood #117 Earl Plato
Naturalist Edwin Way Teale was essentially a botanist. Many of his writings center around flora in nature. This late May entry is no exception.
“ On this late May morning, along the varied paths I follow, my pace is even slower. Everywhere in this time of new and tender leaves and plant growths, those variously formed and tinted swellings we call galls are enlarging and taking shape. … All galls produced by insects - and their varied forms number in the thousands - harbor larvae inside. Each starts in the same way. The abnormal plant growth is induced by an irritant introduced into the tissues when the eggs are laid or added as a byproduct of the life processes of he larva. Wide is the variety of the egg layers - flies, wasps, wasps, moths, aphids, beetles, sawflies, lace bugs, and gnats.
The spindle-shaped gall of the goldenrod shown has a mottled brown and gray moth about three-quarters of an inch in length.”