Several times a week I bike to a nearby park, and stop and munch on an apple while observing the waterfowl on the lake. A couple days ago I noticed these growths on some bare shrubs bordering the lake.
To me they looked like seed pods, but after submitting this picture to INaturalist I learned that they are galls of the Willow Midge.
Rabdophaga is genus of flies in the family of gall midges Cecidomyiidae. There are 105 species distributed through Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.[1] Most species of Rabdophaga gall willows (Salix sp.); one exception is R. giraudiana which galls the stems of poplars (Populus sp.).[2]
Who knew? Now I do.