Galls and Mines With Charley Eiseman A Way to Garden With Margaret Roach October 3, 2022

Since I took a walk with today’s guest about 10 years ago, I’ve adopted a whole different way of looking at what I might have once seen as imperfections in plants. Now when I spy a squiggle in a columbine leaf or what looks like a green Ping-Pong ball on an oak, instead of thinking “What’s wrong with my plant!” I instead think “I wonder who made that—and why?” 

Curiosity has replaced panic, thanks to naturalist Charley Eiseman, co-author of the field guide “Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates,” who’s here today to decode some of nature’s beautiful little mysteries for us. 

Charley Eiseman is a freelance naturalist, and when he’s not conducting biodiversity surveys for conservation groups and other clients, he devotes himself to learning more about the natural world—through an e-book he’s created on leafminers, and a North American leafminer project on iNaturalist.org he started that has some 50,000 sightings submitted, and more.