I never saw the flowers even though I make it a point of hiking through this area regularly. Due to the chewed off tops, it is quite possible if I had visited a few days or a week later I may not have seen these plants either. bboy - not sure if you are referring to the plant's odd name or if you think they were eaten by horses, but on that note, while I was looking up info about "horse gentain" it was noted that nobody really knows why it was given this name :-)

Yes. You'll see them every where in Western NY State, where I live, along with swallow wort, garlic mustard, common buckthorn, and other invasive alien species. Search and destroy is the best approach to these. FataMorgana

It's a non-native honeysuckle, but not maackii. That one has more triangular leaves. The common one here in NJ that looks like that is Lonicera morrowii, but L tatarica and L bella are similar. They're all pretty invasive. FWIW, the non-native honeysuckles have hollow twigs and the native ones don't. Although now that I think of it I don't think I've ever seen a native one. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Morrow Honeysuckle

My guess too. I was in D.C. about five years ago and was amazed at how often Nandina is used there. The berries, though, are held aloft of the plant usually, and typically in clusters more open than, say, grapes. Scott