Diplolepis Central

It's amazing how many Diplolepis are on the prickly wild roses (Rosa acicularis sayi) at the Knife River Marina. I stopped there and did a little exploring and watched the sunset before heading back home. This was by far the most D. radicum galls I've ever seen in one location. These galls are formed on the stolons, which are usually underground, but I've seen them on sandy beaches and highly eroded hillsides above the soil line. I'd guess that this species is actually quite common, you just never normally see it because it's out of site and who's going to go around digging up roses to find it, not me! It was cool to see so many, from small ones that must of had only one or two chambers, to large ones with many, many larva. Since the adult wasps must crawl through the soil to mate, I'm guessing they really prefer loose, sandy soil like that found here. Based on that assumption, it seems fair to say that they should be abundant in sandy prairies further west in the state, but who knows. I didn't have my camera, just my phone, and the lighting was not good, so neither are the pictures, but they're enough to know what I saw.

A large D. radicum

A small D. radicum

I also saw a bunch of D. triforma and D. spinosa. I wonder if any of the other species from the genus were present at this site, with massive amounts of these three species it wouldn't surprise me. But, I had limited time to explore and still get the chance to watch the sunset. 

D. triforma

D. spinosa

There is a small island that looks like about a five minute canoe out to. It's big enough that there are quite a few stunted trees growing on it, and I assume some interesting plants and lichen. Maybe I'll have to convince Charlie to explore it with me this spring or summer. 

Here's some of the other things I saw today:

Red maple (Acer rubrum)

Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina)

Blue jellyskin (Leptogium cyanescens)

Rock shingle lichen (Vahliella leucophaea)

Turkey-tail (Trametes versicolor) collected to make some tea

A fungus on balsam fir needles - possibly needle cast (Rhizosphaera kalkhoffii)















 




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