Because of the overwhelming interest in bumpy leaves, I feel the need to do a continuum this evening.   And therein…. I rolled up my sleeves, and found that those little bumps on leaves…. are called….  galls.

Yes….   oh the gall of it.

These little deformations are usually the result of insects or mites feeding on the leaves.   I KNEW insects had to be involved in all of this somehow.

So here is the deal.  The gall itself…  is the plant’s response to the irritation. It is sort of like the bump you get when an insect feeds on you.  The difference is…. your bug bite will go away (hopefully).  However… you can expect the leaf gall is not going to go away.

AND…. even though it really looks like there might be bugs in there…. the insect is not living in the gall… at all.   The experts say…. in fact…. that it is very likely the insects have moved on.

And there you have it.  No leaf acne, or pregnancy.  No Leper Colony.  Just bug bites.

Hmmmm.

Tomorrow night… I might write about petrichor… which is the name for that clean, green smell…. when it just starts raining.  It turns out… that when those raindrops hit the dry ground… it produces this smell…. petrichor.

Who knew.

Or I could write about that place where you can’t reach to scratch… just between your shoulder blades.  It is a real booger …. now isn’t it?  Bears rub on trees to get it  …. cows try the old ‘stretch and slurp’ method…. and humans invented that little plastic hand on the end of a long stick.  Well that place that you can’t reach… has a name too.  It is called an acnestis.

Who knew again.

Well, crap.  I was going to write about those things tomorrow night, and here I let the cat out of the bag tonight.

Tomorrow then…. the topic is “Letting the Cat out of the Bag.”  The Greatest Unknown of All.  Uh Huh.

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” – Aldous Huxley