Still leafing out, rather bare as yet. This is the Clarkia TH Valley Oak of amazing gallaciousness @graysquirrel Coming soon I hope! @sandy_b
@graysquirrel. My mission today was to see if this (your find) was blooming - it was not.
The resident woodpeckers here are getting lazy! I guess they like warm nuts!
Found by @graysquirrel on downed branches and twigs of Quercus agrifolia.
Found by @graysquirrel
Found by @graysquirrel on bark of fallen wood, probably Valley Oak
Fruiting bodies are 0.6-0.8mm long
Found by @graysquirrel on decomposing conifer wood.
The sporocarps are about 0.4mm in diameter.
UV Fluorescent thing, transparent with normal light, in trickling water
Found by my friend @graysquirrel. Thanks Krissa!
Second photo is a fruiting body from another log in the same location. I'd put that log in a moist chamber after collecting it in the woods.
Found by @graysquirrel
Better shots by @alison_pollack
Topanga State Park
Couldn't get a good angle--eating some sort of pillbug
A slimy mass of larvae under a rock. At least 200. I did not see an adult.
Update of 9/2/23 observation of Artichoke gall-like observation found on Quercus agrifolia.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/181449885
Larvae preserved in 40% ethanol and refrigerated.
Larvae measure ~2.5mm in length.
New gallformers.org code: "q-agrifolia-swollen-bud":
Gallformers page: https://www.gallformers.org/gall/5318
Parasitoid of Rhopalomyia californica.
@graysquirrel @merav @norikonbu @nancyasquith @megachile @garth_harwood
This is a fun one!
On Quercus berberidifolia, California scrub oak
https://www.gallformers.org/gall/3746
Gall on a nonnative pine in a park? I am looking at the brown thing on the green cone. I am not sure if this is a gall. I will remove it from the gall project if it is not.
this obs is for the Usnea growing out of the Cladonia
Found by @graysquirrel. See her observation at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/160694737
Unknown acorn gall according to @graysquirrel
Similar observation here:
Tomatoes in the middle of the creek
Galled berries on greenleaf manzanita
(See how enlarged they are compared to normal berries: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178311006)
got pictures of the glabrous anthers to compare with ptilota
hope this is not an emergent nuisance plant in our neighborhood ditches
Found by @graysquirrel in a garden in Sacramento, on redwood needles. Focus stack of 178 images using a 10x microscope objective adapted to a Sony a7r2 camera.
Galled manzanita berries? I can't find anything similar. Every berry had exit holes--I was trying to find one that was intact to bring home and see what happens. I had to go a ways before finding a few. Photo 3 has a couple of views of a wasp that was on an adjacent berry. I didn't see it until I looked at the photos at home or I would have tried for a better shot.
Photos include habitat (under a rock) and a Garrya (host plant). This was on serpentine
First flowers on new inflorescences. One with a prominent female structure, one without. If anyone knows why this variation occurs, please advise!
Hybrid of White Globe Lily and Yellow Star-Tulip
Fruiting on Liriodendron tulipifera bark in a moist chamber. Photographed with a 10x objective lens.
leucistic (a touch albino) common raccoon in a gaze. ML for INat wasn't able to ID this little pink button nose.
Originally I had no idea what this was. I thought it was a cordyceps as it has erupted from the body of a katydid or grasshopper. Someone has suggested pin mold, another has suggested slime mold.
Found positioned on a decaying log in subtropical rainforest next to a creek. We have recently had lots of rain and high humidity.
Via a cordyceps identification page on Facebook, Nigel Hywel-Jones commented "It is indeed spectacular, and rare. In 35+ years and over 20,000 collections in 12 countries I have found it once. On an adult moth. That is how rare it is. It is in the genus Sporodiniella and is a Zygomycete. It looks similar to Sporodiniella umbellata."
So I have now listed it as such.
Leafminer on Coast Live Oak. I thought that it was a leafminer, but it is a gall.
this observation is for the possible fungal parasite on Niebla cephalota observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5181345
This obs is now for the gall-former. (Previously ID'ed for the plant)
With a Pathogen?
On Eriogonum sp. Not sure if this is part of the plant, or a gall, or some form of fungus.
This is a follow-up post to some odd growth on manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita ssp. manzanita) branches. Morgan Stickrod suggested that it might be a "disturbance response," which does occur in various types of Arctostaphylos. In this case, the disturbance seems to be woodborers. All of the burl-like growths on the outside of branches had woodbores underneath, inside the stem. However, this conclusion is based on a pretty small sample--I only opened up 3 or 4 sections of one small branch. (Manzanita wood was too hard for most of my available tools.) I found two types of woodborers; one I believe is Agrilus sp, possibly Agrilus arbuti which has been documented in manzanita in California. The second might be Lyctus sp, but there really isn't much to compare either borer to online, especially larvae or eggs. Photos 5-10 show the possible Agrilus bores, etc, and 11-12 are the possible Lyctus.
Original post: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140753976
Follow-up 2 observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143517527
Coleoptera Observation 1: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143513192
Coleoptera Observation 2: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143513486
Host: Catsear (I think - other opinions welcome.) Note brown gall body within a rosette gall composed of clustered leaves showing swollen petioles/ midribs. Not represented in Russo's field guides. @nancyasquith, @megachile, @kemper
Spotted knapweed (Centuarea stoebe) and star thistle (Centuarea solstitialis) hybrid. Centuarea stoebe X solstitialis. Growing among the two parent species. ID confirmed by Genevieve Walden at CDFA plant pest diagnostic lab via morphology. Molecular analysis by Patrick Woods and Monica Negrete turned up partial reads with hits on analyses to ribotypes for Centuarea solstitialis and to Centaurea stoebe.
Mud dauber nest?
Found on zucchini
On dead adaxial leaf of Arctostaphylos tomentosa ssp. bracteosa