Have you ever found a pinkish-white marsh mellow-like structure growing on your white oak tree and wondered, "What the heck is that?"

The wooly sower gall is an unusual plant growth induced by the secretions of the grubs of a tiny 1/8 inch gall wasp. Gall wasps have alternation of generations in which one generation develops in one type of gall (leaf gall) and their offspring develop into another type of gall (stem gall). Scientists do not know what the alternate wool sower wasp gall even looks like. How cool is that?!

The wasps do not sting people and are not harmful to trees. Scientists do not know much about these tiny little creatures. What do they feed on? What does the alternate lifecycle even look like? The wooly sower gall wasp is just one of the many weird and wonderful surprises that nature has to offer us. If you have these in your woods and get to see one in the spring, consider yourself lucky.