Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Rene Datta and I would like to ask a question to a gardening expert regarding the identification of a growth that I have seen on some particular trees.  The growth appears to be a multitude of “green balls” that sprout in a numerous fashion from stems on I think maple trees (those maple trees where the maple leaves are enormous, quite a bit larger than a man’s hand) and they seemed to me to come out in the later summer onward (starting about late August or so, although in the almost perennial sunny weather in California, I think I’ve spotted them on trees even at the end of December).  The growth is green and shaped like a large marble – the outside is rough, bumpy and furry, and the inside is pulpy.

I didn’t know whether this growth was some kind of a seasonal extension of the tree branch (like leaves or flower blossoms), or if it was a fruit like a berry or a nut or some other kind of vegetable food source, or whether it was a seed of some kind that grows like pinecones grow on pine trees and would become a new tree once it fell and was carried into fertile soil. 

Well, thank you for your time! 

Regards,

Rene Datta