Plant galls are not a systematic entity and therefore rather tricky to find in iNaturalist. Is there a Plant galls project where i could post observations?
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Here are a few for North America:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/north-american-galls
Some more here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/search?q=galls&source[]=projects
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Decided that this project fits for my non-North American observations. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/leaf-galls Thanks for helping me to find it!
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It’s unfortunate that all these projects require the plant to be identified. This pretty much rules out all the random galls I see in the unknown bin.
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I discovered that while Galls of North America asks for the plant id you can still click on through and add it to the project even if you don’t know the plant.
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As someone who has done a lot of gall ID in California–where a guide to 300 of the state’s galls is available in some libraries and 2nd-hand online–I have two suggestions:
- If you are in North America, click on https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=40.07992185447832&nelng=-64.48138985196076&place_id=any&project_id=35077&swlat=30.22319151064075&swlng=-90.18939766446076&verifiable=any Then click the X to undo “Bounding Box” (it’s at the left of the black strip).
Now, move the map, zooming in and out until the screen shows your general area. Then select “Redo search in map.” Now click “Species.” You will see examples of galls most of which are found in the geographic area you selected. Filtering to RG will get rid of most mistaken IDs.
- Make a separate observation of the unfamiliar plant that grew the gall and link it to the gall observation.
Why ask for host plant ID? Galls are plant-specific. If you see a gall on a white-group oak that looks just like a familiar gall found on intermediate-group oaks, it is very, very unlikely that the gall was induced by the same insect/mite.
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I would also suggest tentatively IDing oak (and maybe rose) galls to “Gall wasps” and the rest to “Gall midges.” Anyone doing gall IDs will at some point check both of these categories–along with “Gall mites” and possibly "Woolly Aphids and Gall-making Aphids."
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Great advice, thank you. I don’t observe galls frequently myself, but I see a lot of other user’s observations of them, and no one ever knows how to ID.
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It would be important, however, to always check all updates on one’s dashboard so as to catch potential mistakes on any tentative id so one can withdraw it if necessary.
I’m growing to really love galls. The other day I found 4 - two on the same plant. And I ignored two that I already had a lot of observations of. I’m fascinated with the different types.
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