What's a gall?
The gall is an example of a special plant-animal relationship.
- Many beetles, moths, aphids, flies, and wasps, as well as mites (not insects), nematodes (parasitic worms), fungi, and bacteria can cause this particular plant growth. They are found on any part of a plant—buds, leaves, flowers, twigs, under the bark, and even on the roots.
- Insect galls vary in size and come in almost any shape—round, oblong, egg-shaped, spindle-shaped, bottle-shaped, or somehow irregular.
- The gall is completely made of plant tissue, but it is the chemicals coming from the other organism that trigger this growth.
