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Galls or plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and mite
Mite

Mites, along with ticks, belong to the subclass Acarina and the class Arachnida. Mites are among the most diverse and successful of all the invertebrate groups....
s.






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Crown Gall
Crown Gall Detail
Galls or plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s and mite
Mite

Mites, along with ticks, belong to the subclass Acarina and the class Arachnida. Mites are among the most diverse and successful of all the invertebrate groups....
s. 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 caused by gall-inducing insect
Gall-inducing insect

A gall-inducing insect is any insect that can cause the growth of gall within plants. The term gall fly is also used to cover these species, although most are not true flies....
s. They are usually induced by chemicals injected by the larva
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
e or the adult
Adult

The term adult has at least three distinct meanings. It can indicate a biologically grown or mature person. It may also mean a plant, animal, or person who has reached full growth or alternatively is capable of reproduction, or a person who has attained the legally fixed age of majority; as opposed to a minor....
s 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 meristem
Meristem

A meristem is the biological tissue in all plants consisting of undifferentiated cells and found in zones of the plant where growth can take place....
s, where plant cell division occurs, are the usual sites of galls, though insect galls can be found on a other parts of the plant, such as the leaves, stalks, branch
Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural Limb connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree . Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs.....
es, bud
Bud

In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or Plant embryogenesis shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the Plant stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately....
s, root
Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial root or aerating ....
s, and even flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s and fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s. Gall-inducing insects are usually species-specific and sometimes tissue-specific on the plants they gall.

Gall-inducing insect
Gall-inducing insect

A gall-inducing insect is any insect that can cause the growth of gall within plants. The term gall fly is also used to cover these species, although most are not true flies....
s include gall wasp
Gall wasp

Gall wasps , also called Gallflies, are a family of the order Hymenoptera and are classified with the Apocrita suborder of wasps in the superfamily Cynipoidea....
s, gall midges, gall flies
Tephritidae

Tephritidae is one of two Diptera family referred to as "fruit flies". Tephritidae does not include the model organism of the genus Drosophila, which is often called the "common fruit fly"....
, aphid
Aphid

Aphids, also known as plant lice , are small plant-eating insects, and members of the Taxonomic rank Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions....
s, and psyllids.

Fungi

A gall-inducing fungus is: Cedar-apple rust
Gymnosporangium

Gymnosporangium is a genus of heteroecious Phytopathology fungus which alternately infect members of the family Cupressaceae, primarily species in the genus Juniperus , and members of the family Rosaceae in the subfamily Maloideae ....
Galls are often seen in Pongamia pinnata leaves and fruits. Leaf galls appear like tiny clubs, however, flower galls are globose.(Suma TS, FRLHT, Bangalore)

Bacteria and viruses

Crown Gall
Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the causal agent of Crown Gall disease in over 140 species of dicot. It is a rod shaped, Gram negative soil bacterium ....
 is an example of a gall-causing bacterium.

Other Plants

Mistletoe
Mistletoe

Mistletoe is the common name for a group of parasitic plant plants in the Order Santalales that grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub....
 can form galls on its hosts

Uses


Galls are rich in resins and tannic acid
Tannic acid

Tannic acid , a commercial form of tannin, is a polyphenol. Its weak acidity is due to these phenol groups in the structure. Tannic acid is a basic ingredient in the chemical staining of wood....
 and have been used in the manufacture of permanent inks (such as iron gall ink) and astringent ointments, in dyeing
Dyeing

Dyeing is the process of imparting colours to a textile material in loose fibre, yarn, cloth or garment form by treatment with a dye....
, and in tanning
Tanning

Tanning is the process of making leather, which does not easily Decomposition, from the skins of animals, which do. Often this uses tannin, an acidic chemical compound....
. 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 is useful for a survival food and fishing bait.

Gallery


Footnotes


See also

  • Bush coconut
    Bush coconut

    The Bush coconut, is an Australian bushfood food, often eaten by Indigenous Australians of Central Australia.The bush coconut is in fact a combination of plant and animal; the Cysticoccus pomiformis grows inside the wood of the Corymbia terminalis tree....
  • Mulga apple
    Mulga apple

    The 'mulga apple', is an Australian bush tucker food, often eaten by Indigenous Australians of Central Australia.The mulga apple is in fact a combination of plant and animal; the insect gall grows inside the wood of the mulga tree ....
  • Oak apple
    Oak apple

    An oak apple is a mutation of an oak leaf caused by chemicals injected by the larvae of certain kinds of gall wasp. They are so called because the gall, which can measure up to 5 centimetre in diameter but is normally only around 2 centimetre, looks a little like an apple....
  • Oak Marble gall
    Oak marble gall

    Oak marble galls develop as a chemically induced distortion of leaf buds on pedunculate oak , or sessile oak trees, caused by the parthenogenetic gall wasp which lays eggs within leaf buds using their ovipositor....
  • Knopper gall
    Knopper gall

    Knopper galls develop as a chemically induced distortion of growing acorns on Pedunculate Oak trees, caused by gall wasps which lay eggs within buds using their ovipositor....
  • Oak artichoke gall
    Oak artichoke gall

    Oak artichoke galls, Oak hop galls, Larch-cone galls or Hop strobiledevelop as a chemically induced distortion of leaf axillary or terminal buds on Pedunculate Oak or Sessile Oak trees, caused by the parthenogenetic gall wasp which lays single eggs within leaf buds using their ovipositor....
  • Rose bedeguar gall
    Rose bedeguar gall

    The 'Rose bedeguar gall', 'Robin's pincushion gall', or 'Moss gall'develops as a chemically induced distortion of an unopened leaf axillary or terminal buds mostly on Field Rose or Dog rose shrubs, caused by the parthenogenetic hymenopteran gall wasp , previous synonyms are D....
  • Pineapple gall
    Pineapple gall

    The pineapple or pseudocone gall develops as a chemically induced distortion of up to a hundred pine needles, mostly on Norway Spruce and Sitka Spruce....
  • Cola-nut gall
    Cola-nut gall

    Cola-nut galls develop as a chemically induced distortion of leaf axillary or terminal buds on Pedunculate Oak or Sessile Oak trees, caused by the agamic gall wasp Andricus lignicola which lays single eggs within leaf buds using their ovipositor....


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