The round structures on the leaves look like gooseberries. If they are really attached to the leaves, they are galls. They appear to be larger than most galls than I have seen. If you know the type of plant/tree that the galls are on, you could probably find out which insect is causing the galls.
Thanks, Rita. They do look like gooseberries, but I think they are galls. I haven't touched them, but they have been there for a few days. I'll take a closer look tomorrow if I can remember where they are! best, Bob
Hi Bob, Those flowers are cream gentian. Their tightly closed petals make it so they're almost exclusively pollinated by bumblebees, the only insects strong enough to force open the petals - sort of the wrestlers of the Hymenoptera world. This ensures that the bumblebee usually finds an untapped nectar source and then is likely to go searching for the same flowers, delivering the correct pollen to other gentians. A close cousin to that flower is bottle gentian. It looks similar but the petals are purple. It will be the last flower to bloom on the prairie in October.
The round structures on the leaves look like gooseberries. If they are really attached to the leaves, they are galls. They appear to be larger than most galls than I have seen. If you know the type of plant/tree that the galls are on, you could probably find out which insect is causing the galls.
Thanks, Rita. They do look like gooseberries, but I think they are galls. I haven't touched them, but they have been there for a few days. I'll take a closer look tomorrow if I can remember where they are! best, Bob
Hi Bob, Those flowers are cream gentian. Their tightly closed petals make it so they're almost exclusively pollinated by bumblebees, the only insects strong enough to force open the petals - sort of the wrestlers of the Hymenoptera world. This ensures that the bumblebee usually finds an untapped nectar source and then is likely to go searching for the same flowers, delivering the correct pollen to other gentians. A close cousin to that flower is bottle gentian. It looks similar but the petals are purple. It will be the last flower to bloom on the prairie in October.