Looks like an apple-cedar rust gall. Are there apples in the area?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosporangium_juniperi-virginianae
They are very alien looking! Definitely a Cedar-Apple Rust gall. After a rain, they get even more alien looking. When the gall releases its spores, those get on apple tree leaves and form brownish-red splotches on the leaves. Later, those form spores and wind transfers those to a Cedar/Juniper.
This fungus moving back and forth between two different species is an interesting life cycle. There is a disease in White Pines called White Pine Blister Rust. It's very similar in that a canker forms on the pine branch, it then fruits and releases spores that transfer to the Gooseberry plant. It then resides on that plant until it goes through the spore cycle and infects another White Pine. The spores are wind-borne just like the Cedar-Apple Rust.
I was a Biology teacher in a previous life.
Does the Cedar-Apple rust gall harm the cedar? It sounds like the apple tree is getting the short end of the deal. Fungi are very interesting.
One of the reasons that we don't see gooseberries or currants much is that fungus. They were almost wiped out in order to protect the commercial value of the trees. It's only recently that they are slowly creeping back out and into production.
I've never seen a gooseberry or currant bush. Before I learned of the connection I'd never heard of them. Then I started noticing them for sale online. I can't say I've seen them at the nurseries yet. There may even be old laws against their sale.
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