A Persicaria spp. Can't name species without seeing fresh leaves.

Cannot provide fresh leaves. This was the only piece -- it did not have a flower -- yet and since I pulled it no possibility to see if Persicaria is a match. But not bamboo most importantly. Thanks to all.

But not bamboo most importantly.

Not necessarily. 😁 The possibility of something far more sinister than bamboo exists and does have the ability to pop up spotaneously, which bamboo does not. I agree it is likely to be something in the Polygonaceae (Fallopia, Bistorta, Persicaria, Polygonum, Reynoutria, etc), but not clear enough to nail down a particular species. Besides, they seem to change names every few weeks anyway!!

At least your mystery plant does not appear to be one of the really bad guys of the family, Reynoutria or the giant knotweeds. Those are serious invaders and are far more difficult to control than any bamboo.

I have a large clump with the same habit as yours. I take a pic of it tomorrow and compare it with your plants. Brickellia eupatoriodes has 6 varieties and there are significant differences between them. My plants are at the same stage as yours.

The leaf pattern matches my plant, but on the left,what looks like buds forming, looks questionable? Top down shots make it impossible the guage the whole flower. A side view of the flowers and buds, and the way they are attached to the stems, would be most helpful. Some plants can be easily ID'd from an above shot, but these thouroughworts are tricky. I can't post photos currently.

Lance-Leaf Coreopsis.

Lance-Leaf Coreopsis is one I first looked at because I have seen it in this meadow before, however the petal shape doesn't seem to match as its petal edges are more jagged and irregular whereas Helianthus pauciflorus petal more closely match those in my sample, smooth and pointed.

I found this:

Sporobolis heterolepis seems more likely simply because of of where it was growing, being described as preferring:

dry to medium, well-drained soils...... It prefers full sun and dry, rocky soil

Whereas Carex radiata grows in:

moist to mesic deciduous or mixed woods, floodplain forests, pond edges, wetland margins, and only occasionally in more open areas.

Owing to the fact that it is growing in a quite dry, open, area with no shade and that it was most likely planted here, I would think that Sporobolis heterolepis would have been a more likely choice. Jay 6a Chicago mentioned that Sporobolis heterolepis should be in flower and I see no signs of a flower but this could be due to the very hot and dry summer that we have had which possibly could delay the flowering.

I had to zoom in and enhance the raw original photo to see what I thought were blooms, so I guess I wasn't seeing things :-)

Thanks for helping me narrow it down.

No it's definitely not a Vinca. My guess would be a Ruellia. Maybe humilis???? I'm not at all familiar with the genus.

@Jay 6a Chicago time will tell. It was a new variety for me this year.

rouge21 - Baby Joe is looking good, I wonder how tall it will get(?). Little Joe in my backyard is thriving this year thanks to adequate rainfall, its tallest stems are 6':

The tallest perennial in my yard is (not surprisingly) Helianthus giganteus, at 10' high:

Jay - My groundnut vine (or as you called it "hopniss") is sprouting readily from the roots, and is starting to ascend a nearby senna plant:

New this year (for me) is Meadow Blazing Star, a monarch magnet (there were two monarchs fighting for a prime spot on it when I took this photo):

Also new for me (planted last year) is Kankakee Mallow. Unfortunately, Japanese beetles like the flowers, but there were a few they left untouched:

Hey @Jay 6a Chicago, I thought of you when I spied my Woodland Sunflower the other day. It is past its prime but it still makes me happy showing yellow in low light:

Baby Joe is looking good, I wonder how tall it will get(?).

@arbordave (SE MI), good question. I am confident that it is fully mature now at less than 5 feet in height.

My philosophy is always right plant, right place. I had the same experience with Joe Pye weed in a garden as rusty blackhaw and would never plant in a garden again. But I have a large stream floodplain and have lots of boneset and Joe Pye there and they are lovely. Pokeweed is menace in my cultivated areas, but I let it grow in other areas for the critters. I love Virginia creeper in the woods and wild areas, but when it starts encroaching on planted beds, it gets removed.

In Wisconsin, I live in a neighborhood of manicured lawns, so while I have lots of my favorite noninvasive nonnatives, at the back of my property I am adding natives to work well with the prairie planting on the drainage easement that is behind me. But I am trying to stick with plants that will behave well in a suburban setting.

I have an Oklahoma. I planted one three years ago and it did not survive the winter. It was half dead and then the rest died. Too bad, as it was a nice specimen - about five feet tall and nicely shaped.

I replaced it with another one (also about 4-5 feet tall) two years ago, so this year is its second season. It's probably too early to give you any definitive idea of its durability though. It is doing well A bit of winter dieback on the tips of some branches but overall it is doing pretty good in its spot. I can definitely see more growth this year than last year.

FYI, mine was planted as a replacement for my beloved triple-trunk oak. Obviously a redbud won't grow the same way lol, but I had a shade garden here and needed SOME kind of shade, and decided to try a flowering tree among my many oaks.

I had to laugh at the "deadbud". Reminds me of when I mentioned losing an Anna's Magic Ball thuja, someone told me they call them Anna's Tragic Ball. Haha! That actually makes me chuckle every time I read it and makes that loss and any potential future loss easier to take!

:)

Dee

Ooop...I asked this question before and obviously forgot about it. LOL! You can surmise I didn't get a redbud at that time. My plan is to go tree shopping this weekend, I need two replacement trees, hopefully I'll come home with something in the truck. What I gather from these two redbuds threads is overall they're well-liked, should be perfectly fine in my zone, and stay with the northern strains.

I will likely be dead or too old to care if the tree cr*ps out at 25 or 30 years, as long as I can get it established and it does well before that time comes I'm fine with it being "short lived".

Gorgeous! I have a few of them, but they don't make clumps. I did not plant them but do scatter the seeds when they are ripe.

I had no idea the seeds/fruit are edible!!! At what point of coloration do you eat them?