The One Washington Apple You DON’T Want To Eat

If you enjoy spending time along the Columbia River Gorge, hiking in the woods in Southwestern Washington State, or marveling at the beauty that surrounds you in the Ponderosa Pine Zones in Eastern Washington then you've seen plenty of oak trees.

More specifically Garry Oak *also known as Oregon White Oak) trees.  They are the only native oak tree to Washington State and are also protected due to their declining numbers.

Oak trees provide their own habitats for over 200 species according to information from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.  They reproduce through seed and sprouting.  If you took the time to look close enough while around one, you may have noticed the oak 'apple'.

Get our free mobile app

It looks like a small fruit, kind of like a crabapple or in some cases a small, unripe apple.  It is most certainly NOT the type of apple you want to eat, unless you want some serious issues.  Oak apples really aren't a fruit but they are something you want to stay away from.

What Is an Oak 'Apple'?

Also called oak 'gall', oak 'apples' are roughly 1-2 inches in diameter and are a product of the ecosystem they help to create.  The female gall wasp injects eggs into developing leaf buds on the oak tree.  A chemical reaction from the larvae feeding on the gall creates the gall, or shell, that resembles an 'apple'.

That shell protects the larvae while it grows.  If you were to grab one and cut it open, you would find small wasp grubs crawling around.  Again...NOT the kind of apple you want to bite into and eat.

While many aspects of nature are fascinating, some are also a little on the disgusting side.  Knowing that what looks like an apple is actually in the process of becoming wasps falls into both categories.  The video below gives you the full scope of this phenomenon.

So the long and short of it is, Washington Apples are the best apples in the world...unless it's an apple in an oak tree.  Those you pass on eating.