Lime Nail Galls
Those look like Lime trees. I’m not sure though.
![Limes at Forde House - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David B](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Limes-at-Forde-House-The-Hall-of-Einar-1-725x725.jpg)
They’re in the grounds of Forde House, a luxury Jacobean manor house in South Devon. It looks great from this angle. It’s a shame about the six lanes of traffic going across the front lawn and an ugly modern council building at the back.
![Limes at Forde House - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David B](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Limes-at-Forde-House-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-725x544.jpg)
On the tree leaves are bright red galls. An insect has been laying its eggs in these leaves and the tree has developed a spectacular but ineffective defence.
![Lime Nail Galls - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Lime-Nail-Galls-The-Hall-of-Einar-4-725x483.jpg)
They are Lime Nail Galls, Eriophyes tiliae. That seems such a lame name for something so spectacular.
![Lime Nail Galls - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Lime-Nail-Galls-The-Hall-of-Einar-5-725x483.jpg)
I decide to try some more stylish photographs once I’ve got a few record shots.
![Lime Nail Galls - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Lime-Nail-Galls-The-Hall-of-Einar-3-725x483.jpg)
That’s better.
![Lime Nail Galls - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Lime-Nail-Galls-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-725x483.jpg)
A quick change of camera to a small compact with manual controls gives me a depth of focus so narrow it hardly exists.
Magical.