What Is This Weed?

That looks exactly like it. From the name, I guess that's why the bees like it so much. Thanks.

 

I discovered a new berry-producing shrub this morning, because direct gardening sent me an email of the plants they have on sale right now. This shrub is called Aronia , and it has berries that look similar to a blueberry, but are not as sweet. It said that the shrub grows 3-6 feet tall and spreads, and the berries are one of what we call “superfoods”.
It is actually native in most of the eastern part of the United States (zones 3-8) so it should grow fine here, and it will spread, which is fine with me, too.
It can be used as an edible hedge shrub, because of the spreading, so if you don’t want it to spread, you have to get rid of the new side sprouts, or at least let them grow where you want them.

The berries have a lot of good vitamins and minerals, but are sour, and the berries are commonly called “chokeberries” (different from a chokecherry), but it says that they are great mixed with sweeter fruit like apples, and make good jam, juices or added into a smoothie. Since the are half price right now, I am thinking about getting a couple of them to plant out back and see how they do.
I think they might be something that would work in your back yard reclamation project, @Ken Anderson .

https://www.tenthacrefarm.com/grow-aronia-berries/

 

It is edible, but actually eating it is another matter, @Maggie Rose . I think that the smaller leaves would have worked better, but I did use some in a green smoothie, and that was not bad. I tried cooking some like spinach, but the leaves are tough.
I read that some people make jelly from the flowers, but I didn’t try that.
I think that if a person used the tender young spring leaves, they would be better than the tough summer ones that I was experimenting with.
As with all edible greens, kudzu has a lot of vitamins and minerals.
We do not have any nearby where we live now, or I would probably have been trying to find better ways to use it, since it is so prolific.
Here is a page with some ideas for eating kudzu:
https://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Kudzu

 

I will look into that. Spreading is what I'm looking for because I want something in which I can plant only a few, and have them fill in the rest of the space on their own. I can control the spread while I'm still around and after I die, I don't care if it invades the whole state.

On a previous topic, I noticed that someone has bamboo growing pretty successfully between the back of his yard and the railroad tracks on the other end of my block. I would prefer something with edible berries, though.

 

According to the last issue of Grit that I read, the blossoms can be used in jellies and in desserts or candies.

 

Kudzu is edible. But then, they say that about broccoli and liver, too.

 

I just got a plant identification app for my iPhone, called “Picture This”, and you can identify all kinds of plants with it. I ended up getting the paid premium version because I can see that this is something that i will use a lot, but you can get the basic one for free.

It also can identify plants from a photograph, so I looked up the ones you had asked about before, @Ken Anderson . The rose/berry vine turns out to be called a northern dewberry, and is very similar to a blackberry, so you should be able to get berries from it each year.

The interesting purple flowers are called Scarlet Beebalm Bergamot, according to my app.

I definitely recommend this app for all of us who are gardeners, or just outdoorsy-type of people. It can identify wild plants , too; so I can see that it could be useful for someone like @John Brunner who lives near woods and has wild bushes and plants to identify.

 

Thanks. I'll have to check that out. I've hesitated to install apps on any phone I've had, but it sounds like recent versions of the iPhone operation system give the user options for managing the data those apps might help themselves to.