cecidology

my favorite sentence from wikipedia recently: “the study of plant galls is known as cecidology.” so in other words, there is a scientific field for the study of cecidia, or galls, which makes me gladhearted about both the extent of human curiosity, and the extent of nature’s complexity. Better yet, these particular galls are caused by the black cherry finger gall mite, aka Eriophyid mites, that feed exclusively on the leaves of black cherry trees. i’m enchanted.

leaf with galls