ID? "bean pods' with small worms inside??

I'm doing some volunteer work at a park and saw something I can't identify. I don't know what tree/shrub is hosting but hope that the description is unique enough that someone will know.

At the top of the plant, mostly on new leaves, there are growths forming along the central vein on the underside of the leaves. These look very much like bean pods hanging from the leaves each about 3 inches long. The leaves themselves curl around the entry wound -- presumably the center vein. The more immature of the growths are a light green to tan color, older ones are mahagony. Inside, there are small worms about one-quarter inch long and white. Any idea what this might be?

No chance of photos, eh? Wanna take a stab at what kind of a plant you think it is? Are you thinking the 3" hangy thingies are seed pods or are you thinking they are egg cases of some sort?

Sounds like an insect gall if the growth is actually plant material.

Yeah, I guess not knowing the host and no picture makes it difficult! I'll snap some pics when I'm back out there on Monday. I'll also try to see if anyone on site can ID the plant.

Ok, after googling around it seems it may be some sort of midge pod gall. The host is not a honeylocust though -- leaves are way too large. But the description of the gall being kinda hollow with the little wormy things inside is right. Definitely need to ID the host plant...

Back at the park today, pruned a piece of the plant for photos. This first pic is of an affected branch - note the "pods" on the new growth.

A close up of that same branch...

Flipped a leaf over, note the entry along the mid vein.

Opened the growth, no larvae inside -- probably either too late or they dried up overnight. But you can see the little tracks they made.

Does this look like the plant-
http://www.diplomlandespfleger.de/Bilder/Baum/fraxinusornus.jpg
http://www.bomengids.nl/lente2/pics/Pluimes__Fraxinus_ornus__Manna_Ash@img_3088.jpg
http://www.swsbm.com/Illustrations/Fraxinus_ornus.gif

If not, photos of the leaflets and the crotches from the top would be a big help. A few close up photos of the top of the leaves showing the margins please too. Your underside photos are great! A photo of the whole plant would be really nice too.

very, very intriguing. i can't wait to see what the plant is and the bug.

Glad you posted tracks, I just realized the second link isn't working and that was the best link.

Let's try that link again-

http://www.bomengids.nl/lente2/pics/Pluimes__Fraxinus_ornus__Manna_Ash@img_3088.jpg">e-mail:/lente2/pics/Pluimes__Fraxinus_ornus__Manna_Ash@img_3088.jpg

Well, that really didn't work.

chatnoir, please go back to the first post with the links in them and cut and paste those two lines into your browser and take a look at that plant and tell me if you think that's it. I just tried it and it worked by cutting and pasting the whole thing into the address bar of the browser.

Definitely think I have an ash. Opposite branches, compound leaves with 7 leaflets. Not certain if it's F. ornus, my leaves look a little wider. Here are a few last photos in in situ:

Close up of a leaf. Not certain if this is the same organism causing these abnormalities or if my tree just has mulitple issues!

Last one, shows the early stage of whatever is happening -- I think!

Well, we've got it narrowed down to Fraxinus spp. My bet is still on Fraxinus ornus because of the shape of the leaves and the margins. Most of the others are more ovate or lanceolate.

I don't think that's the same organism. That new photo you posted looks like classic Ash Rust (Puccinia sparganioides). Sheesh, is this the year of the fungus amungus or what!

I have never seen what ever you've got there before that is causing that bean pod type distortion. Bizarre. I haven't had a lot of time to poke around but so far I've been coming up empty handed. I'd tell you to send it to our extension office but I've never had good success with them. I'd try an extension office in Wisconsin since you've now got a host of pretty darn good photos representative of what's going on. You could also call and ask permission to send your photos to this man-
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/Directory/Faculty_Info/Sinclair.html

If you call first and if you let him know that you have some photos that you would like to be able to send as an attachment just to see if he can steer you in the right direction, I think he would respond to you. Maybe send the second, fourth, and last photos and reduce the jpeg files on them?

I hate to say this but I'm sort of really excited about learning more about this. I know Ash are toast because of EAB but I still would looooooooove to find out what this is. Please to cyber slap my hands for typing that ok?