Took the middle son to our lease in New Mexico. Sitting on the mountain next to what I call scrub oak and I see these little fruits hanging from it. The old dark hard ones have a hole through them and the softer lighter colored ones have a lava inside of them. What are they?

Oak gall (wasp).

Oak gall

Wasps make them. Kids in the California delta been using them for bobbers before white men ever set foot in America

So what and how do the wasp make it? Is it a reaction from the tree or does the wasp produce it. Thanks

very neat

That's is neat.

Oak galls have been used to make ink since at least the Early Roman Empire. It's easy to make ink with them.

https://realselfsufficiency.com/make-oak-galls-ink/#:~:text=Get%20this%20easy%20oak%20gall%20ink#:~:text=Get%20this%20easy%20oak%20gall%20ink

Keith

Intresting

Looks like twig and berries. For real though.

What oak brush is this time of year, especially if there is a lot of it, is a deer elk bear magnet

The wasp injects a chemical into the bark of the tree that makes the gall, and lays an egg that hatches out and eats the gall. The hole is where the wasp escapes into the world.