http://www.mercurynews.com/home-garden/ci_20260249/garden-art-unusually-shaped-citrus

Garden as Art: Unusually shaped citrus

By Joan Morris
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 03/29/2012 10:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 03/29/2012 01:57:23 PM PDT


Courtesy of Sue Allen ( Sue Allen )

Sue Allen, a volunteer with San Jose-based Village Harvest, a nonprofit group that harvests backyard fruit trees and donates the food to area food banks and soup kitchens, says that the volunteers run "across some mighty interesting quirks of Mother Nature." Allen wonders what causes the deformities, and the answer is the citrus bud mite. This tiny little bug feeds inside new citrus buds, killing the bud or causing a rosettelike growth and distortion in the fruit. For more information, go to www.ipm.ucdavis.edu.