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Author Topic: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?  (Read 5325 times)

Offline tillie

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white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« on: August 30, 2009, 10:25:40 pm »
I didn't have my camera so I don't have a picture.  I'm in Cumberland, MD visiting my daughter and we walked a wonderful trail yesterday and today that is a rails-to-trails trail along a canal between Cumberland and Frostburg MD (and we walked it the other way as well - east and west of Cumberland). 

All along the trail was a large shrub about 10 feet in spread and about 6 feet tall with these clusters of tiny white flowers that stood up like 6 inch white Christmas trees all over it.  I think the leaves were sort of heart shaped.

There were bees on every flower - hundreds of bees - mostly honeybees, but also bumblebees, wasps, tiny other bees, a myriad of species that all found this sweet smelling shrub absolutely attractive.

Does anyone have any idea what this shrub is?

Linda T currently in Maryland (far from Atlanta)

Offline Jim134

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2009, 10:49:25 pm »
Knotweed may be? or Japanese Bamboo? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed



   BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)
« Last Edit: August 30, 2009, 11:00:04 pm by Jim 134 »
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Offline tillie

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2009, 11:04:35 pm »
Thank you, Jim 134, you are the best!  That's exactly what it is....

Do you have it in MA?  I haven't ever seen more bees on anything except a Linden tree at the farmer's market in Atlanta.

Linda T visiting in Maryland

Offline Jim134

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2009, 11:08:24 pm »
Thank you, Jim 134, you are the best!  That's exactly what it is....

Do you have it in MA?  I haven't ever seen more bees on anything except a Linden tree at the farmer's market in Atlanta.

Linda T visiting in Maryland


  YES lot of it



    BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)
"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may  remember,involve me and I'll understand"
        Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."
 John F. Kennedy
Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Offline tillie

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2009, 11:10:32 pm »
I just did a search for it in Georgia and it is listed number one on the list of the 13 most offensive weeds in Georgia ahead, would you believe, of kudzu - which is of course number two!!!

Well, I'll have to look for it at home.  People may not like it (Internet says it grows 4 inches a day) in its invasiveness but the bees sure do.

Linda T

Offline reinbeau

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2009, 08:40:55 am »
Japanese knotweed, Polygonum cuspidatum, is a terribly invasive plant.  You'll see it all over the highways and sides of side roads, the tiniest bit of root will turn into a field of it if it isn't controlled.  Of course it's also a wonderful bee plant, it's a member of the buckwheat family.

Offline Cindi

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2009, 11:03:18 am »
Jim, Ann, wonderful. (you, in particular Ann, I thought would reply to the thread with your vast knowledge of the horticulturally thingies).  We have Japanese Knotweed growing like wildfire everywhere here too, they consider it invasive beyond invasive could possibly be.  But well, well, we live with it, the bees surely do love it.  Have that most incredibly wonderful day, to love and live, great health.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline reinbeau

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2009, 07:54:36 pm »
I was on my morning walk this morning (I'm trying to work myself back up to my 3.5 miler - I did 3 this morning finally!) and walked by a stand of blooming knotweed.  It was absolutely humming with honeybees!  Hundreds of them.  I wonder if they were ours?  :-D

Offline Cindi

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Re: white flowered Maryland shrub - what might it be?
« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2009, 10:43:54 am »
Ann, good, it sounds like you are recovering from your malade.  Good to hear.  Three.5 miles, wow!!!  That is a long, long walk.  Wish I had the guts and gumption to walk even 1 km.  I probably traverse that amount daily on my property, doing work, but it is not the non-stop marathon (smiling) that should be done, meaning, walk, walk, walk.  I think our knotweed should be blooming in our area too now, just haven't noticed.  Have that wonderful day, to love and live, with best of health.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

 

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