Looks like a Shefflera of some sort. Usually called umbrella tree. I could be wrong though.....

Hi guys - I've changed the subject posting, but the original thread remains. I'm in eastern Mass and we've definitely entered an early fungus season here. I'm sure that spot (the original post) was a fungus, but I'm not sure what kind (I think there were actually multiple kinds). Over the past few weeks I've: - applied (a few times) aerated compost tea - applied 20lbs/1000 ft2 of fine-ground cornmeal (food for the beneficial bugs in the compost tea) - fertilized (I've tried several different tactics with fertilization, but I'm back to using Scott's 4-step program - the actual "Step" 1, 2, 3, and 4 products... I also hit that one particular circle spot with some starter fertilizer - just to really give it a shot of nitrogen. It is slowly coming back to life, but it took a pretty good hit. I have learned from the forum that using a fungicide kills not only the "bad" fungi but also the good fungi (kills all fungi). I don't really know enough about all this, but seemed to make sense. I have to say that the tea + cornmeal + keeping enough nitrogen on the lawn seems to be having a positive effect (i.e., I still have some yellowing from fungus and spots of red thread, but they seem to not be taking over and appear to be subsiding over time.) That's the good news. The unknown news is that we really haven't entered the heat stress of the summer yet - so I don't know what to expect. If it starts to go back downhill, I may be forced to use something like the Immunox. So a question for the forum: IF I do use the Immunox, how harmful is this to the ecosystem of my lawn? Of course, if it completely solves my fungi problem, that's a good thing. But will it also "sterilize" my lawn and kill off other beneficial fungi and disrupt an otherwise healthy lawn? I've been trying to add organic matter and compost tea, etc to the lawn - I don't want to kill it all off in one swoop with an Immunox application. Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks! Brad

Not only edible but very tasty! Makes a great pie and eats fresh out of hand well too! They don't keep well in the fridge so eat or use right away. While I too have read that the unripe fruit are toxic, from personal experience I suspect that is only with very unripe fruit. We tend to eat them from a dark red on to the purple-black color. But this can be an excellent teaching tool for a parent to teach plant safety, knowing positively before eating, what plants to avoid, and so on. Before my kids were allowed to pick and eat their own berries, they had to learn how to be safe, id the good as well as bad, and learned to treat what they don't know as poison. FataMorgana

If the description of the "flower" is right, I think you have a healthy nut sedge. It is an invasive weed in the lawn or garden. Even if it is not nut sedge it is likely to be some other kind of sedge. Remove the seed pods. The leaves will feel a bit stiff. Some sedges are good ornamental plants. If it is an aquatic sedge, it may have come in with some other plant. Here is a link that might be useful: Pretty, but still a weed