If lately you’ve been noticing odd, fuzzy puffs on the ground beneath ... What’s happening is the wasp inserts its eggs into the bud of the tree – not the leaf, which emerges later ...

The tree has become naturalized in many parts of the southern United States so you can see them most anywhere in lower North American latitudes. Fuzzy, brown flower buds form in early autumn ...

A tropical tree creates insect ... Shields cover their reproductive organs, so wind pollination is unlikely. Before male flower parts mature, the buds loosen, and thrips slip into the pockets ...

Here and there and mostly under oaks in Central Florida is what looks like an invasion of miniature pompoms. They are one of nature’s crazy-but-true tricks of reproduction by bugs nearly too ...