myrmepropagandist on Nostr: Oak trees are anchors of species diversity in the temperate forests of the Americas ...

Oak trees are anchors of species diversity in the temperate forests of the Americas and Europe. A single oak growing in a sidewalk well behind my apartment in the Bronx is home to seven species of ants and countless other insects, birds, fungi and small mammals.

Oak trees host the widest array of galls. (I have a theory about galls being a kind of sign post for complex ecologies.

In Australia it's the Eucalyptus trees that host the most diverse collections of galls. 1/