On Quercus agrifolia
Arctostaphylos mewukka host
Saw many along Sunset Trail.
Note added 10/4/23: I now know that these are galls infecting our native California Aster plants. The plants' wildflowers are used by our native pollinators. Here is the link to my previous posting that shows healthy California Aster plants (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180188639), and it includes links showing close-ups of these wildflowers being used by native bees.
For latest update, see my 7/20/24 comment below.
I would say Exobasidium arctostaphyli but apparently more research needs to be done. On Manzanita 'Howard McMinn', a widely planted and successful cultivar/hybrid in the nursery trade, especially California. The effect is pretty though, right? Except for maybe photo 6, showing the affect of last year's galls.
It's getting tough to move about the park without bumping into 1 or more groups of wild pigs.
Growing on Utah juniper and dried specimens found in the duff below.
For the Juniper-
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/185035195
Gall galling a gall. A guess on the "hypergall", but they are in season around here.
Tujunga Wash North
I'm thinking this is a nest of some sort...on sagebrush
A strange petiole gall on, I think, valley oak.
This bobcat was about 20 ft. in front of me on the trail. When it saw me, it climbed the fence into a horse enclosure (the horses couldn't care less). Two little birds were watching it fearlessly as it climbed the fence. I think the bobcat might've been after some turkeys who were making a fuss. It sauntered through the horse enclosure, not in a hurry at all. Then it climbed another fence and disappeared into the tall grass. So cool to see a bobcat this close!
Note: unfortunately, some of these pictures were taken through tall grass/weeds, so they didn't turn out as well as the ones with the vivid blue sky as background.
Gall formed on Lonicera hispidula?
Unknown q-dumosa-pip-gall
Found by @chilipossum on Scrub Oak, very interesting! The side view photos do look more acorn-y 😆
I'm figuring that this is G. baccharisella and not Rhopalomyia californica, mostly because of the lack of lobes in the gall. But I thought I'd see if anyone else has other thoughts on the observation.
Some sort of constructed nest on the side of a rock
On Hazardia squarossa. Consistent pattern on many leaves. See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116899086 for what emerged later.
Leaf miner on green stem of oleander
One of the weirdest mushrooms I've seen...stem is very woody, cap and under cap like a skin, inside is complete rust-color spores that erode easily. Persists a long time. Growing near ivy and Peruvian pepper tree.
found by @moonlittrails on Elm while looking for the gall that @nancyasquith found last year (but apparently on a different plant, I thought it might have been this one)
Just 1 seen. Flying and sometimes settling on a tree trunk.
Check these out @merav @garth_harwood @nancyasquith Two of these oddballs (flying saucers! bowler hats on pedestals!) on the same Scrub Oak leaf.
Fitzroy Provincial Park, ON
On Alder.
Time for a tasty centipede-snack
Petiole gall on Coast Live Oak.
On Quercus chrysolepis
On Engelmann oak in Santa Barbara botanic garden. Unlike a blister gall, there is a well defined, somewhat lumpy, mostly flat abaxial organism associated with each adaxial pimple. But unlike the plate gall that white oaks host, these don't seem detachable, plus with Andricus pattersonae there's no adaxial deformation (as there is here in this observation), just downstream damage. And this is well out of range. Last photo is probably of something completely different using the same space, but who knows?!
On Prunus subcordata.
On Valley Oak (Quercus lobata)
Not sure what made all these little holes, maybe 3-5mm diameter
13-mm twig gall on an oak tree with deeply lobed leaves, tentatively identified as Quercus lobata. Can't find a great match in the new Russo guide - AI wants this to be a Disholcaspis sp.
On Calystegia subacaulis.
bisexual generation
Seen on an unknown oak species
Abnormal growth on Baccharis
Host: Blue Oak. Colorful unisexual gall in images 1 and 4. Beige (dried) version of bisexual gall in images 2 and 3.
Very strange stem gall on coyote mint (probably Monardella villosa), producing what looks an awful lot like pollen. Clearly the same as https://www.flickr.com/photos/openspacer/13389261995, but what's inducing the gall?
slime mold? On the back of decomposing sycamore leaf.
Host: Leather Oak.
on coyote brush
looks a bit different than the regular coyote brush bud gall
"witches broom" - abnormal growth of branches probably caused by a fungus or virus altering the branch.
The Pine is identified here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19262578
valley oak; just bursting out of the stem
A genus of midges that induce galls on Brodiaea elegans elegans. Added pictures of larvae, pupae, pupal cases, and adults after hatching.