Weird Thing

First off, these photos are done my my husband with the "good" camera. I'm a happy-snap person, he's a photographer. As always, you can click on the image for a larger view. I've scaled these down but they're still about 1200x900 on average. You've been warned.

SO, I was walking down to the barn to get some hay for the rabbits (that's totally irrelevant to the post, but I like saying it because it sounds so country-farmy), when I saw this weird thing on the ground. I picked it up and stuck it in my pocket. I mean, that's what you do with weird things you find. You stick them in your pocket so you can ponder them later and share them with the important people in your life.

I didn't know if it was a plant thing (seed pod? fruit?) or an insect thing (eggs? larvae?) or a disease thing (gall?). I'm still not sure.


This closeup of the surface where the "stem" is attached sure makes it look like it's vegetable rather than animal. This thing is not very big. It's 1.5 inches in diameter. But maybe it's an immature weird thing.

Here is where the "stem" is attached to the twig. I'm not sure if the stem grows in multiple fibers like this, or if the bark has been shed from the stem, revealing an interior structure that would normally be enclosed.

Comments welcome.