Tag: trees

Feron kingi

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Feron kingi

Feron kingi, commonly known as the red cone gall wasp, is a member of the Cynipidae family.

The adult female lays her eggs within the leaves of several white oak species, including the valley oak (Quercus lobata). Once the egg hatches, the larva begins feeding on the leaf tissue, triggering the plant to form a hard, protective structure—a small red cone about 5 mm tall. This gall benefits the insect, providing it with additional plant tissue to consume. Inside the gall, the larva pupates and eventually matures into a parthenogenetic female adult before emerging from the tip of the cone. That’s right — there are no male gall wasps.

Salix lasiolepis

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Salix lasiolepis

It was so good to meet with SMMNJC again this past weekend. Due to vacation, holidays, and wildfires it had been four months since I’d got to hang out with the gang. We welcomed four newcomers, and all enjoyed our time in the sun. I got curious about the arroyo willow flowers and identified male/female. Did not identify the odd stem growth, but mysteries are OK by me.

two trees

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Datenight

After our meal at a Ventura restaurant called Two Trees, we asked the waiter about the name. He told us the story of two oak trees high on the hills behind Ventura, an iconic landmark that could be seen from the harbour. He said the trees burned in the Thomas Fire of December 2017, but that the community raised the funds to replant them. I asked what kind of oaks they were, but he didn’t know.

I did some googling when I got home. Turns out the story is slightly more convoluted. For starters, they were blue gum eucalypts, not native oaks, originally planted in 1898 along with 11 others. Several months before the Thomas Fire, one of the last two trees was felled by strong winds (it was already dead at the time). So then it was just Lone Tree. And maybe a recently planted sapling (sources vary, reported timelines are inconsistent). It seems that the trees have been replanted multiple times over the decades, perhaps most recently in 2018. Venturans consider the trees iconic, and want to protect, nurture and, yes, replace them as needed.

Now I need to look out for this landmark, which I confess I’ve never noticed.