Knopper Gall

We have a young self-seeded Pedunculate Oak tree in our front garden, growing in a very inappropriate place. Eventually we'll probably need to remove it but for the time being we're letting it grow. This year it flowered for the first time, and produced one giant acorn and three Knopper galls. 

There's a very interesting article all about these galls here. They were first noticed in the early 1960's, and are produced by a tiny gall wasp with an interesting life-cycle involving an asexual stage on Pedunculate Oak and a sexual stage on Turkey Oak. By 1979 they were very abundant and there was some concern that they would affect the reproductive success of oaks. However, while they remain very common, there's no evidence that they are causing any harm to Pedunculate Oak populations, and they've just become one among many of the galls to be found on this tree.

We had an unexpected visit to see Molly this morning. The extreme heat, possibly compounded by dehydration and maybe salt imbalance, had caused her to become very confused during the night. Fortunately by the time we arrived to help, she was already returning to normal, with flashes of her old sense of humour coming through. We left her calm, lucid, but very tired. Hopefully she'll sleep better tonight, though it's still very hot and sticky here, even after a rather spectacular thunderstorm.