British Plant Galls: 2nd Edition

This AIDGAP identification guide contains around 300 keys to galls on plants in Britain, arranged alphabetically by genus of host plant.

Many naturalists are familiar with the bizarre and often colourful oak apples, marble galls, robin’s pin cushions, rosettes and bean galls on oaks, wild roses and willows, and wish to discover more about them. There are many other galls too and, in order to investigate them further, the first task is to name them or, more precisely, to name the organism that induced the plant to produce the gall.

The publication of the first edition of British plant galls in 2002, itself building on an earlier guide produced in 1986, stimulated more interest in plant galls, resulting in the discovery of new galls and galls that had been inadequately described or illustrated.

This fully revised second edition includes revised and expanded keys to incorporate changes in nomenclature which have accumulated since 2002. Additional galls have been illustrated and many figures replaced, with new drawings based on British specimens.

One series of keys is now used for all galls except those caused by bacteria or by other plants. These are not host specific and are dealt with in separate section. Galls on lichen and fungi have been omitted and will be dealt with in a companion volume.