Well that looks a lot like a Lactuca species. I've never noticed, or heard of, any of them having a sweet smell. I've never seen or smelled a Carolina Spice Bush, Calycanthus floridus, but do you think there could be one of those around somewhere? Do they even grow in Texas? Another possibility might be Lindera benzoin. Again I've never seen or smelled one.

Thanks a million for posting the link. I enjoyed reading it so much. Cornbread is like so many other things in cooking/baking, it's neither right or wrong (unless you're dogmatic) - but a choice. It's the same for brownies - chewy, cake-like, or something in between, it's a choice. My Canadian-born (bush country of northern Ontario) mother never made cornbread until she discovered she had celiac disease and made 100% cornmeal cornbread made with sour cream, and no flour to lighten it, and I thought it was a wonderful recipe - so maybe there shouldn't be wheat flour in the mix, either! ;-) The only other cornbread I had to compare it to at the time was at school, and it was the sweet cake-like style. I like all of it, and have made lots of different recipes for baked corn pone and corn sticks, and cornbread, and different methods baking it over the years. My personal experience.... Until you've made cornbread with freshly-milled cornmeal you've missed out on one of the greatest flavor experiences EVER! And it doesn't matter WHAT recipe (sweetened, or not, additional flour, or not) you use. It's one time fresh-is-best. Commercial cornmeal tastes like "road dust" compared to freshly milled cornmeal. On the food science side - which is what I always find interesting and useful as a former Foods Judge at County and State Fairs who uses a list of standards for judging different baked goods - the finer the cornmeal is ground the more cake-like the finished bread. If you like a coarse cornbread, use a coarse-grind of cornmeal (Bob's Red Mill has coarse, medium, and fine grind). If you have your grandmother's recipe, but just can't get the recipe "right", she may have used a different grind of cornmeal. There is also a big difference between recipes depending on the ratio of cornmeal to (wheat) flour. I make a very thin gluten-free version using finely-milled cornmeal (I mill my own) and masa flour (used for making tortillas) to use as sliced sandwich squares for grilled sandwiches. If I use a coarse grind of cornmeal in this particular recipe, the cornbread falls apart. So there are any number of reasons for using different recipes and different grinds of cornmeal. Sugar in a recipe will work as a tenderizer and will also aid in the browning. You can almost tell there's sugar in a recipe by the lightly browned crust, while the anemic-looking crust (or the crumb and crust are almost the same color) probably has no sweeteners in it, other than the "natural sugars" found in corn and (wheat) flour.

It is white granulated sugar mixed with molasses. Does have a much different flavor than ordinary granulated sugar - a bit richer tasting, IMO. I use it only for baking. We also have available turbinado and less frequently, demerara ( I bring mine back from Canada) but I don't use either of these for baking. I prefer these for sweetening - on hot oatmeal, in tea (when I bother to sweeten....not often) and for my favorite way of eating fresh strawberries......dipped in sour cream then dunked in demerara to lightly coat. Yum!!

I would not clean the counters with vinegar prior to placing the Terro trays. You want to encourage ants to forage onto your counters, not discourage. And a word of warning.....if and when the ants visit the Terro tray, don't touch or move it. Even if they swarm the area in an scary frenzy to get to the bait, just leave it alone. Add another tray if they empty the first one too rapidly. In my experience, Terro worked overnight. After an unnerving swarming of the tray in the bathroom and in the floor of the pantry, I never saw another ant in my home. That event was ten years ago.