Q: Please help me identify this tree/shrub/plant that we have allowed to grow on our property. This year it has produced a fruit or seed pod.

A: Naturalist Shannon Pable says you have a sumac shrub with leaf galls. It’s amazing looking!

Other experts say the galls are formed by aphids, which lay their eggs on the leaf and cause leaf tissue to grow around them in a characteristic pattern.

Sumac leaf gall

Sumac leaf gall aphids

sumac with leaf galls

sumac with leaf galls