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# GOOSETREE
- URL: https://www.8ismeerdan1000.com/ganzenboom-2/
- Published: 2026-09-15T16:36:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T16:36:45.000Z
- Description: hoofdstuk 27. KAKEN
- Author: ACHT.IS.MEER.DAN.DUIZEND
- Tags: The Sketchbook of Changes, #lightbox, 27

Clinging to one of the concrete blocks on the Nazaré breakwater. Among the black mussels. Marvellous little creatures, as if from another planet. *Pollicipes pollicipes*, the goose barnacle.

![](https://www.8ismeerdan1000.com/content/images/2026/09/4b548222-6eb5-48d2-91b0-1b8b0b039ba3_494x900-jpeg-3.jpg)

Goose barnacles by the natural history illustrator Jean-Gabriel Prêtre, c. 1837.

‘Goose barnacle,’ not to be confused with ‘barnacle goose.’ And that was precisely the case for a long time. In the Middle Ages, bird migration was an unknown phenomenon. No one had ever seen geese mating or nesting. And because the *Pollicipes pollicipes* bears some resemblance to the neck, head, and beak of a goose, a direct link was drawn between the two: the barnacle goose and the goose barnacle. The goose did not hatch from an egg; it grew on the plant. The myth of the goose plant, of the goose tree, was born.

![](https://www.8ismeerdan1000.com/content/images/2026/08/0ea3ee07-e974-4966-a566-96572d406b6e_352x335-jpeg-3.jpg)

![](https://www.8ismeerdan1000.com/content/images/2026/08/be7e2ce7-a539-4f20-989c-7750d4697899_594x480-3.png)

Now, the goose barnacle is by no means a plant. At first glance, the goose barnacle looks more like a mussel or a shellfish. It is, however, a crustacean. Here in Portugal, they’re on the menu as *percebes*. I’ll leave them be; for now, I’m content with simply observing them and enjoying the juicy medieval tale.

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![](https://www.8ismeerdan1000.com/content/images/2026/09/27-2-1.png)

27\. JAWS

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