Amidst the confusion this year of trying to figure out the female flower of an incense cedar tree, I discovered what initially appeared to be a cone developing is actually a gall. I was tipped off that this growth was different because I came across an incense cedar with developing cones. I immediately realized that they were not the same.
I was walking around with a friend at the arboretum and we decided to cut one of these growths open and see what it was like inside. When we cut it in half, it was fleshy and green inside, and there wasn’t an insect or larva inside. Thinking that there had to be something inside, we cut one of the halves in half to further investigate. We found a tiny, metallic green wasp cradled inside! I mean this insect was tiny. I took a heap of photos to try and show it to you. They mostly turned out fuzzy because the insect was so small. I couldn’t zoom in close and get a photo with decent resolution. The one below is the best one of them.
I am fascinated by the world of galls, how they form, the variation of their colors and shapes, and the diversity of wasps. It is such a mysterious world to me. It seems like a whole other level of awareness to tune into these tiny creatures and observe their life cycle. It reminds me that there is a vast universe of life unfolding right before me of which I am mostly unaware.
I posted about a small, orange caterpillar I found at the tip of one of the branches in January (Incense Cedar Branch Tip Mystery) that I thought was one of the female flowers. Maybe these two phenomena are connected.
