Galls of California

Identifying California Galls

One great resource is Ron Russo’s recently released (2021) Plant Galls of the Western United States.

The other resource I find extremely helpful is the website www.Gallformers.org, which as of 7/2022 included pages for over 1800 described North American galls, plus numerous undescribed ones.

Here are some other sources to consult for help identifying California galls:

• The species list for this project offers a quick photolist, with the easiest-to-find galls appearing first.
• Joyce Gross's photolists of California oak galls or other California galls are really helpful, especially the one for oak galls.
• My own somewhat idiosyncratic listing of 200+ California non-oak galls, alphabetized by host plant with links to the iNat species page for the gall inducer and to helpful online resources. There is also my new list of California oak galls, a more bare-bones list mainly concerned with which trees host the gall and where on the tree the gall occurs.
• For the SF Bay Area, you can also download and print Merav's photo-brochures showing common spring galls and common fall galls. They are at https://www.bioblitz.club.

Interesting Reading

Floate, Gall-inducing aphids and mites associated with the hybrid complex of cottonwoods, Populus spp. (Salicaceae) on Canada's grasslands (2010). This is helpful for ID of poplar galls in N. America, although it is written as a guide for one area in Canada. Go to this page and download chapter 13.
***Harris & Pitzschke, Plants make galls to accommodate foreigners: some are friends, most are foes Fascinating 2019 article about what constitutes a true "gall" and how gall inducers hijack plants to make galls.

Here's how insects coax plants into making galls This 3/2/2021 press release includes a link to the full article by Korgaonkar et al.

Leather, Simon, Not all aphid galls are the same (2013)

Quilliam & Shattock, Haustoria of microcyclic rust fungi . . . and other gall-forming species . . .(Plant Pathology 2003) Concludes that some but not all Puccinia and Uromyces rusts form galls [extremely difficult and technical; I would love to find a different article on this fascinating topic--Nancy]

Russo, Ron, Confessions of a Gall Hunter (Natural History magazine 2009/2010) on page 20.

Russo, Ron, Plant Galls: Desert Treasures (Fremontia magazine 2010/2011) on page 40.

Nyman & Julkunen-Tiitto, Manipulation of the phenolic chemistry of willows by gall-inducing sawflies. Research showing that gall-inducing insects can have an amazing amount of control over the chemical properties of the galls they induce.

Stone, et al., The Population Biology of Oak Gall Wasps (Annu. Rev. Entomo. 2002).

Video

Eriophid mites: The MOVIE! Spend a minute-and-a-half learning what they look like and watching one crawl a few millimeters.

If you can recommend other sources of information about galls, please share!

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