Outdoor Ontario

Off Topic => Anything Goes => Topic started by: Andreas Jonsson on March 28, 2010, 02:27:38 PM

Title: Weird plant on Leslie Street Spit - What is it?
Post by: Andreas Jonsson on March 28, 2010, 02:27:38 PM

Walking around on Leslie street spit the other day I noticed a plant of some sort, a grass I think, that grows a hard bulb, about the size of a large cherry (see pictures below). Presumably the bulb is a container for seeds. Anyway, most of the bulbs I saw had a tiny hole in them (last picture below). I was wondering if anybody knows what plant this is, and who's making the holes!? A bird perhaps (I know american tree sparrows have been roaming the area all winter in search for seeds) or some some sort of insect? Interesting stuff, at least to me.

(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2527/img3505j.jpg)
(http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8141/img3506p.jpg)
(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/4857/img3501u.jpg)

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Post by: GStuart on March 28, 2010, 03:12:28 PM

I can't tell you what the plant is, but it is usually something common like goldenrod.  The reason for the bulb is that a parasitic insect has laid an egg in the stem and the plant has swollen around the larva.  It was probably laid by some type of gall wasp.

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Post by: Andreas Jonsson on March 29, 2010, 10:01:57 AM

Wow, interesting. Thanks GStuart.

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Post by: Cody on March 29, 2010, 09:41:15 PM

There are alot of these near the Grimsby Airport, in the far right field, however you need permission from the owners to go there.

Title: Goldenrod gall fly
Post by: AJ on March 30, 2010, 05:35:47 AM

Follow this link for all you ever wanted to know about these galls:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecolo ... ll_fly.htm (http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/goldenrod_gall_fly.htm)