Oh the grass is there. Look harder. If that is at least 14 inches long, then it is King Ranch bluestem. For years the state has been planting it in the medians along all the interstate highways. Now it is invading everywhere. I have a house in George West which is trying to be invaded by the KR bluestem. I am surrounded by it on 1 acre and it had made inroads before I bought the house. I have allowed my St Augustine to grow unmowed and that seems to have stopped the weeds. I do not have enough of the bluestem to experiment with keeping it mowed as a turf grass. If it would stay down, it might actually make a nice, native, lawn. The color is good. The only problem is the seed stalks.

Perhaps one of the Verbenas. Verbena brasiliensis looks similar. Here is a link that might be useful: Verbena brasiliensis

You have a Tamarisk. My advice would be to kill it. Out here, Utah and most of the west, they are invasive weeds. They have taken over much of the riparian lands here and have choked out much of the native vegetation and animals. Aside from producing literally thousands of seeds a year, they have very deep tap roots, often going down over 20 feet. They will lower the ground water below where other plants cannot reach it. This reduces competition. Another way they reduce competition is by taking salts from the ground and water and secreting them from their leaves onto the ground. Over time this raises the top soil salinity and, again, reduces competition. These are very tough plants. We have had summer with no rain for three or four months, and they do not seem to have been bothered at all. Even fire will not kill them, they just grow back from the roots. They also associate will a bad crowd. Siberian Elms, Tree of Heaven, Russian Olive, you know the disreputable type. Recently, a beetle has been imported from the Mediterranian area where these things come from. It eats only tamarisks and seems promising in at least thinning them to allow the natives to come back.

beng12... first, I know it's redundant but please bear with me as I reiterate the caution of a positive id. In my area, for example, the time for ripe black cherry is long past. Ok, that said... making cherry syrup couldn't be easier. Simply gather as many as you can. Remember, the seeds are toxic, so remove the pits from the flesh without scratching the seeds in the process. This is the toughest part, basically it's getting your hands messy. I have found no shortcuts. Although next year, I hope to try something that I read on these forums involving a plastic mixer attachment then straining through a sieve. Once you have your 'goop' of flesh and juice, just add it to a simple syrup recipe. The amounts of ingredients will depend on how many cherries you've mashed. I suggest making a few batches of plain, simple syrup before you try the cherry. A basic recipe is 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Just put a cup of water on the stove top, mix in 2 cups sugar, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to keep a simmer - low boil. Stir as often as needed until the syrup is clear. At first it won't look like it will clear, but it will. Usually it takes less than 5 mins. Another recipe calls for 5 cups sugar, and 3 cups cold water, combine and slowly bring to a boil, stirring often. This one was given by Alton Brown for his Iced Tea sweetener. In this one for example, he adds lemon slices and fresh mint for flavor. You can even buy maple, or many other flavors found near the vanilla extract in your supermarket spice aisle, and make any flavor of syrup you wish. The idea of making it before hand is to learn the consistency of syrup so that when you add the black cherries, regardless of how many you've gathered, you'll know how much to add to the simple syrup. You can ask about preserving the syrup through canning over at the Harvest Forum, but the fresh syrup should be refrigerated and it will last a few weeks to a month. To increase fresh shelf life, just add a little vodka, not enough to taste or make 'alcoholic', but just enough to act as a preservative. I think Brown's recipes on the web give specific amounts. If you made real soda, you could bottle that and preserve it that way. Oh, in rereading my first comment, I made it sound like you can make jam from the syrup, well, black cherries can be used to make jam, but get a real recipe for jam or jelly. I mis-phrased that tagged-on comment.