Weeds de Jour

 Golden Rod (Solidago sp.) is a common late summer/fall blooming weed here, forming large masses of flowers in wild spaces.    Note some of the trees in the background starting to turn color.  Dogwoods, Black Gum (Tupelo), and various maples are all starting to turn red, in addition to our Tulip Poplars, which start to get yellow leaves begin loosing leaves in summer if the rain fails.

In Europe, Goldenrod is grown as a garden plant; in America it is mostly considered a weed.  They are beloved of insects.  They have a bad and undeserved reputation for causing allergies, since they bloom during hay fever season, however, Ragweed, which blooms at the same time, but has an inconspicuous bloom, and a wicked pollen is responsible for most of it.

I also ran into a mass of a previous Weed de Jour, Spotted Bee Balm, growing in the same area. (It's in the foreground in the first photo).

Finally, there were a large group of mushrooms growing nearby too.  Good looking, but edible?

Let's see, white gills and a veil?  A very bad sign.  There might be an edible mushroom with those characteristics, but I would have to guess that this is one of the deadly Amanita mushrooms, maybe even the Destroying Angel.