Who Said Docks Are Boring?

 It seems like each summer I find a new "thing" along the Greenway. One year it is Eurasian Tree Sparrows, another year it might be Leafcutter Bees, the Camouflaged Looper, or extrafloral nectaries. Sometimes I stumble upon my "thing" for the year, and sometimes I seek it out.

This summer I have declared "summer of smartweeds." Unfortunately, smartweeds don't really get up and running until later in the season, so I'm biding my time checking out their close relatives, the docks (Rumex spp.). Of course, I don't know much about them (yet) but I've been looking for their weedy shapes along the sidewalks, checking their stems for distinguishing ochreae, and generally noticing them in a way I didn't before. 

Which brings me to the black schmutz spotted coating the stem and leaves of a dock plant I would otherwise have passed by as (forgive me) boring. What is that, some kind of fungus? I catch a stem blowing in the heavy wind and hunker down for a closer look.

Aphids! 

Tiny black aphids, clustered together on the stem. Larger ants attend them, with a beetle and a spider also hanging around suspiciously. I took what photos I could with the swaying stem and went home to research.

Conveniently, there is a black Dock Aphid (Aphis rumicis) that uses docks and smartweeds as a host. I can't say with certainty this is my aphid, but it is strikingly apt. One resource even describes "rolled and crumpled leaves" caused by colonies of this aphid, which matched the leaves I saw on the host plant. 

Though aphids are unsightly pests for many gardeners, they have an interesting lifecycle, and their curious chunky little bodies with cornicles (often charmingly described as "tailpipes" or "exhaust pipes") sticking out, some winged and some wingless, are rather cute when you look at them as individuals instead of a nearly-solid mass on a stem.

So while out looking for one new friend, I encountered another. What else will I find in the summer of smartweeds?