A Backyard Oddity

I had planned to blog about my needle keepers today, but I have something else interesting to  blog about.  My husband came in from outside and said, "You have to see this.  It looks like the tree is growing a brain. "  So yes, I had to go see it.

He had pulled some type of gall off of one of our cedar trees.  It did look almost like a brain with its folds and creases.  We know that it really is not a brain, but our imaginations were working overtime.  Just recently in the news we had been reading about the theory that many complex systems develop some type of self-awareness. 

I have been searching on the internet trying to find trying to find a gall that matches the look of this particular gall.  I haven't found one exactly like it.  It could be an insect gall, but I am thinking it is an immature form of a fungus called Cedar Apple Rust.  It requires both an apple tree and a cedar tree to host this particular fungus.  Guess what?  We have both an apple tree and a cedar tree.  So the odds are pretty good that this particular gall is that type of fungus.  What I have read on the subject so far is that once the spores are released, the horns dry up and the gall falls off.  I have not been able to find a photo of one after it has dried up so far.

Apparently this fungus starts as a brown gall.  After a couple of years it grows protrusions that look like horns.  Then it turns a slimy bright orange and releases spores that attack apple trees.  The gall is not that harmful to the cedar tree, but it is damaging to the apple tree. 

Now that I am thoroughly horrified at the thought of a slimy orange something hanging from our trees I will be out looking for the galls in force.  I don't want to lose my apple tree or take this fungus up to the trees in the mountains.  However, it does need both hosts for this particular fungus to take effect, so hopefully it will not be so much of a problem up there. 

Literature on Cedar Apple Rust suggests one method of treatment is to remove the galls from the cedar tree while they are in an immature state.  That could prove to be problematic in this case.  The tree has grown quite tall.  I am guessing somewhere around thirty feet ( 9.1 meters).  They can grow up to sixty-six feet (20.12 meters) tall.    There are also fungicides that can be used.  I am not sure that fungicides will be all that helpful.  The apple trees can be affected up to a couple of miles from the cedar tree.  I guess I need to call an extension agent and get some more information.