Tiny Forest Architects

Walking along Merlin’s Wall today I noticed something unusual on a small sapling.

Bright pink spikes scattered across the leaves like tiny alien forests.

Seven years later I now know they are spindle galls, created by microscopic mites so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye. The leaf makes these tiny mite homes, it’s a weird relationship but clearly working. I have a policy of Look with your eyes and not with your hands. You never know what is happening or what will change if you look with you’re hands.

The mites stimulate the tree to grow these strange structures, which become their tiny homes. The tree isn’t harmed — it simply grows around them, creating shelter for a whole invisible world.

It’s a reminder that even the smallest corners of the forest are busy with life, building homes, adapting, and surviving.

Out here at Mayapple Farm, the forest is full of these hidden architects.