Disclosure: this story appears in designboom’s POSTHUMAN UTOPIAS chapter, which is presented in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL.
Among the oak leaves of Solano County, California, lie oak plant galls that look like they came from another planet. Bright pink spikes jut from leaf surfaces. Striped cones rise in colored tiers. Rounded forms appear to have sprouted from another planet. Timothy Boomer’s macrophotography captures them in sharp, close detail.
These growths are plant galls. Insects trigger each one, and the host plant builds it. The gall becomes a nursery for the insect’s young.
Familiar trees, unusual oak plant galls
The subjects look exotic, but they are nearby. Boomer, who lives in Solano County, says most of the oak plant galls he photographs grow on native oaks close to home.
“With how exotic-looking these structures are, one might assume that I travel to tropical rainforests or the bottom of the ocean to find them,” Boomer told designboom. “But the truth is that most of these galls are quite common on the native oaks where I live.”
Sometimes, he adds, a walk around the neighborhood or a look in his own front yard is enough.
How a wasp steers a tree’s growth
Many organisms can induce galls. Boomer focuses on cynipid wasp galls, which he calls “the most visually stunning.”
If the wasps and their hidden nurseries fascinate you, Elizaveta Porodina’s Mesmerizing Insect Photographs offers another close look at small creatures through the lens.
The process starts when a female wasp lays an egg in a host plant and deposits chemicals with it. The plant then redirects nutrients toward new tissue. As the larva feeds, that tissue forms an enclosure that supplies both food and shelter.
The larva keeps maturing inside the gall until it reaches the outer edge. “The larva will continue to mature as it feeds on the inside of its ‘nursery’ until it reaches the exterior,” the photographer explains. Then the adult wasp emerges and begins the cycle again, “that is, if all goes as planned.”
The shapes of oak plant galls vary widely. Urchin galls look like small sea creatures with pink spines radiating outward. Striped volcano galls rise in colorful cones. Others form flattened discs or fuzzy spheres. In each case, the insect shapes the plant’s growth, and the plant supplies the material and builds the structure.
An uninvited guest changes the design
Two versions of the spined turban oak plant gall show how a single structure can diverge. The typical form is bubblegum pink, with several spines extending from a fairly flat crown. The second form is coral-colored, with darker tips and segmented spikes pointing in every direction.
Boomer believes the second form resulted from a different insect. A non-inducer from the genus Eurytoma entered the gall early in its development and interrupted its growth. Boomer, who says he is not a scientist, describes it as a “home invasion” that alters the home.
The example shows that a gall’s form can change after construction begins. A new occupant can alter how the structure grows.
Galls are only one example of living things reshaping their surroundings, and Sicily’s Bosco Colto Interspecies Architecture Campus explores that same idea of building alongside other species.
Shooting at the limits of focus
At these magnifications, depth of field narrows to a sliver. Boomer uses focus stacking to keep the whole subject sharp.
“I take dozens, hundreds, or even over a thousand exposures with tiny, incremental focus shifts and combine them so that the entire subject is sharp,” he says. The result reveals detail that the naked eye cannot easily see.
Boomer uses Photoshop to remove artifacts that the stacking process introduces. He says he works to keep each specimen’s true appearance. “These organisms are 100% real, not AI-generated. Nature does not need to be ‘enhanced.'”
Photographs are credited to the photographer, who publishes under the handle @wildmacro.
The images show a world of color and biological invention hidden in ordinary California oak woodland. Each gall is a building made by one organism for another, and its final shape depends on who moves in.
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Frequently asked questions
What causes oak plant galls to form on leaves?
Insects trigger each oak gall, and the host plant builds the structure. The gall then serves as a nursery for the insect’s young.
How does a cynipid wasp gall develop over time?
A female wasp lays an egg in a host plant and deposits chemicals with it, prompting the plant to redirect nutrients toward new tissue. As the larva feeds, that tissue forms an enclosure providing food and shelter, and the larva matures until it reaches the outer edge. The adult wasp then emerges to begin the cycle again.
How does Timothy Boomer capture such sharp close-up photos?
Boomer uses focus stacking, taking dozens, hundreds, or over a thousand exposures with tiny focus shifts and combining them so the whole subject is sharp. Because depth of field narrows to a sliver at these magnifications, this technique keeps the entire gall in focus.
Are Boomer’s gall photographs AI-generated or digitally enhanced?
No, Boomer says the organisms are 100% real and not AI-generated. He uses Photoshop only to remove artifacts introduced by the focus stacking process, aiming to preserve each specimen’s true appearance.
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