Rohan Syer of Friends of Andrews Reserve in Melbourne sent me the following information.
"Michael. You had a Hop bush gall photo. We had same instances in Melbourne. Friends of Andrews Reserve. FOAR. I had contacted Leon Costerman, nothing conclusive but deduce it is insect related. This link has some details. https://www.horticulture.com.au/globalassets/hort-innovation/resource-assets/ny15002-gall-producing-insects.pdf From the above site: The gall is a by-product of insect feeding, caused when the feeding insect injects saliva into the plant that contains particular chemicals or hormones.
Thrips (various families in order Thysanoptera) Many plant species can be affected by gall forming thrips including Acacia, Myoporum, Ficus, Dianella, Schefflera, Casuarina, Pittosporum and many others. Inconclusive but my guess at this point is that it is thrip caused. Our photo sample - unable to insert. But same as yours. "
(From Leon) From Leon - "There are numerous types of insect, and different plants are affected in different ways: some, like wattles, get galls (lumps), others, like tea-tree, get 'brushes' of leaves of very reduced size (sometimes called 'witch's brooms', some get distorted growth of the leaves, which appears to be the case with your Dodonaea."
Thanks for the additional information Michael, that’s very interesting. I have noticed this a number of times since, so it would appear to be relatively common.
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