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This plant or tree is in front of my house.

Can somebody identify this one? Its height is around five feet, and it has cherry-like red growths on the leaves, like in these photos:

leaves with red fruit like

red fruit like on the leaves

The plant

Further to my question, I dissected this red thing and Mr. Dan Sorensen is right. I could see small insect in side.

This plant is from Bangalore, India. I just want to know what plant is this and how useful is this plant.

The red galls opened and the plant

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    it would assist in identifying the plant to know where in the world it is and to have a picture of the whole plant so we can see it's shape and size
    – kevinskio ♦
    Dec 25, 2014 at 13:39
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    Looks vaguely rhododendronish:google.com/… India?
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Dec 25, 2014 at 15:01
  • Is the label at the foot of the plant in the third picture unrelated to this plant? Otherwise, agree with diagnosis of red growths given in answer.
    – Bamboo
    Dec 27, 2014 at 13:36
  • Regarding ID (now that the red growths are identified as galls) ever seen any flowers on this plant, and if so, when and what were they like? Are the leaves fragrant at all when bruised or crushed?
    – Bamboo
    Dec 28, 2014 at 11:52

1 Answer 1

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Those are not fruits, but galls caused by an insect laying its eggs inside the leaf tissue. It is probably a tiny wasp. If you carefully dissect one of the galls you will find either an unhatched egg or a larva inside. Usually it is not considered a problem unless there are so many that the plant is disfigured, but spraying with insecticides will not have any effect unless you use a systemic kind, and even then the galls will remain until the leaves drop off. Enjoy the Christmas colors instead.

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  • Any idea on the name of the plant?
    – Niall C. ♦
    Dec 25, 2014 at 14:20

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