(no subject)

[haruka]

I discovered this on my deck today where a bird must have dropped it. It's some kind of fruit, I think, but I don't know what kind. It's light green with little pale bumps all over the outside, and on the underside, where the bird (presumably) made a perfect small hole in it, I could see inside to where there was some kind of spiny core. I don't know if it came from a tree or bush around here or possibly someone's garbage. Does anyone recognize it?

Comments

[weaverbird]

Looks like black walnut, to me. If not, then I'm guessing it's some unripe nut, at any rate.

[haruka]

Ohhh, nifty! Thank you! :)

[rowkey]

I've never seen a black walnut (even unripe) with white bumps, but you never know!

[haruka]

Looks like it was an Oak Apple, see the reply below. :)

[melannen]

It's not a black walnut, the texture is wrong, and that wouldn't have a spiny core.

I actually suspect it's an Oak Apple - a sort of a swelling/tumor that forms around an insect larva from an egg laid in a leaf. The hole would be where the adult insect tunneled out.

Does it seem really light, as if it's mostly hollow? In that case, it's almost certainly a gall (all of the nuts/seeds/fruits I know of which look like that are fairly dense.) It's definitely oak apple season where I am - I'm seeing them all over.

[haruka]

That has to be it! I followed your link and found more pics, one of which looked almost exactly like it, plus we have an oak tree right beside where it fell. Thank you!

[rusticana]

Alien eggs. No doubt about it.