One plant’s misfortune is one photographer’s joy: this is a gall on a goldenrod plant, the result of an insect doing something to annoy and disrupt the plant, which responded by forming a growth around the disruption.
When I took this photo, I didn’t know any of that — I was just captivated by its form, those richly-textured rosettes that sprouted what looked like a pair of horns! But it turned out to be a great opportunity to learn more about visually-fascinating goldenrod. Many thanks to Golden Hills RC&D and Dr. Tom Rosburg, who put on a great educational session about goldenrod last week, and to John Pearson of the Flora of Iowa Facebook group, who identified this as a gall.
