An oak variant?

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2trapper

Forager
Apr 11, 2011
211
1
Italy
Dear all,
I recently found this type of of fruit (?). The tree might be an oak (according with the " Tree Coolins guide") but I can't find anything about the orange fruit. Can you confirm if it's an oak? Thank you

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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Yep, I suspect an oak gall - home to the larval stage of the gall wasp. Used to be made into ink.
 
Last edited:

Joonsy

Native
Jul 24, 2008
1,483
3
UK
An Oak Gall - but a huge one!

Yup its an oak gall, dont often see them that large though

that’s because most are 'oak marble galls', that looks like an 'oak apple gall', there are different types

it’s an oak gall, however many are unaware that there are different types of galls, there are ''oak apple galls'' and ''oak marble galls'', name refers to size differential, oak apples are up to 40mm and oak marbles are up to 20mm therefore youre’s could be an oak apple gall due to large size. They contain larvae of the gall wasp of which there are different types. Incidentally there used to be a bank holiday called oak apple day that originated to celebrate the restoration of Charles II (because he hid in an oak tree)

Some info on types of galls:-

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources/research-curation/projects/chalcidoids/pdf_X/Willia2010.pdf
 

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