Gall Information

Galls or plant galls are abnormal outgrowths^[1] of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites. Galls are often highly organised structures and because of this the cause of the gall can often be determined without the actual agent being identified. This applies particularly to some insect and mite galls.

Causes of plant galls

Insects

Insect galls are the highly distinctive plant structure formed by some herbivorous insects as their own microhabitats. They are plant tissue which is controlled by the insect. Galls act as both the habitat and food source for the maker of the gall. The interior of a gall can contain edible nutritious starch and other tissues. Some galls act as "physiologic sinks", concentrating resources in the gall from the surrounding plant parts.^[2] Galls may also provide the insect with physical protection from predators.^[3]

Insect galls are usually induced by chemicals injected by the larvae or the adults of the insects into the plants, and possibly mechanical damage. After the galls are formed, the larvae develop inside until fully grown, when they leave. In order to form galls, the insects must seize the time when plant cell division occurs quickly: the growing season, usually spring in temperate climates, but which is extended in the tropics.

The meristems, where plant cell division occurs, are the usual sites of galls, though insect galls can be found on other parts of the plant, such as the leaves, stalks, branches, buds, roots, and even flowers and fruits. Gall-inducing insects are usually species-specific and sometimes tissue-specific on the plants they gall.

Gall-inducing insects include gall wasps, gall midges, gall flies, aphids, and psyllids.

Fungi

One gall-inducing fungus is Cedar-apple rust. Galls are often seen in Pongamia pinnata leaves and fruits. Leaf galls appear like tiny clubs; however, flower galls are globose.

Bacteria and viruses

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is an example of a gall-causing bacterium.

Other plants

Mistletoe can form galls on its hosts

Uses

Galls are rich in resins and tannic acid and have been used in the manufacture of permanent inks (such as iron gall ink) and astringent ointments, in dyeing, and in tanning. A high-quality ink has long been made from the Aleppo gall, found on oaks in the Middle East; it is one of a number of galls resembling nuts and called "gallnuts" or "nutgalls". The larvae in galls are useful for a survival food and fishing bait; see the Indigenous Australian foods Bush coconut and Mulga apple. Nutgalls also produce purpurogallin.

Gallery

See also

• Bush coconut
• Mulga apple
• Oak apple
• Oak Marble gall
• Knopper gall
• Oak artichoke gall
• Rose bedeguar gall
• Pineapple gall
• Cola-nut gall
• Neuroterus quercusbaccarum Common Spangle and Currant galls

Footnotes

1. ^ [1] Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, accessed Nov. 16, 2007 ("an abnormal outgrowth of plant tissue usually due to insect or mite parasites or fungi and sometimes forming an important source of tannin")
2. ^ Larson, K. C., and T. G. Whitham. 1991. Manipulation of food resources by a gall-forming aphid: the physiology of sink-source interactions. Oecologia 88, P.15 – 21.
3. ^ Weis, A. E., and A. Kapelinski. 1994. Variable selection on Eurosta’s gall size. II. A path analysis of the ecological factors behind selection. Evolution 48, P.734 – 745.

External links

• Goldenrod Gall Fly
• All Galls Are Divided Into Three Parts (At Least In Goldenrod), Solidago
• "Gall". Infoplease encyclopedia. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0820047.html. Retrieved March 2006.
• "Common oak gall". University of Kentucky Entomology. http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef408.htm. Retrieved September 11, 2006.

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