plants – Kerry Wixted

A wooly white gall with pink spots on an oak.

By - kwixted0
Posted on April 26, 2026April 26, 2026
Posted in plants, wasps

Oh, the Gall! Gall-making Wasps

Have you seen a weird lump, bump, and/or projection growing off a leaf or stem of a plant? If so, you might have encountered a gall which is an abnormal growth of plant tissue caused by an invertebrate, fungi, and/or bacteria. Gall-making invertebrates secrete chemicals (like proteins) as they feed, causing plant tissue to form

By - kwixted0
Posted on January 3, 2025January 3, 2025
Posted in plants

Secrets of Skunk Cabbage

For many years, I took skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) for granted. It was that stinky plant that dominated wetlands and helped frogs hide from my youthful pursuit. In college, I learned how it was a wetland indicator plant, meaning its presence marked a wetland. It wasn’t until I met Master Naturalist (and later friend!), Siobhan