Based on what you saw, it appears to be entirely herbaceous and deciduous?

Yes, pretty sure its both.

Any more info on this one? It’s such a strange thing. We may have to wait for flowers.

Probably a ridiculous thought but in my neck of the woods that could be a Hebe.

I was thinking the same thing, but I think it’s a long way from hebe-land.

I was thinking it could be in Gentianaceae.

just as examples :

click on " leaves and stem "

https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/bottle-gentian

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_cressler/10372096645

I did check the Gentianaceae, the ones I looked at all mentioned fine hairs. This is very smooth.

Ah, whats a hebe and where is hebe-land : )

There were a dozen or so of these scattered over the slope. Very slow growing and must be a late bloomer. They were under a heavy canopy of 80 yr old natural stand of Loblolly pine and assorted hardwoods. Heavy litter on the ground. This tract of land is scheduled to be logged in the coming weeks so I collected one to keep a eye on. The chance of these getting run over is quite high. Still not much of a change. This is the same plant in the first photo. The leaves have a papery feel.

Hebes are woody subshrubs native to New Zealand. They have a pretty limited range of adaptability outside of the west coast........'hebe-land' :-)

If the leaves were in more of a whorl rather than distinctly opposite, I'd say Daphne laureola but that would be just as unlikely as the hebe in GA/NC.

Hmm, Hypericum may be a possibility. BONAP says I have 39 to choose from. This may take a while.

I also jumped over Daphne for the same reason, GG.

I can look at some of the hypericum later today, but it was just a guess....

Edit: I looked... I’m going to need flowers to differentiate the species or even be sure that this is Hypericum. Sorry. I also didn’t know that some of Hypericum are listed under Triadenum now. The pink flowered ones.

If that were growing here, it might be dog strangling vine.

Still not much has changed , staying at 10". It has added some new growth but it doesn't look like buds. Havent sifted through the suggestions yet. No hairs, deep green foliage, leathery leaf.

Those look like flower buds apically to me....

I keep waiting for one to be a flower bud, but each time they have produced 2 little leaves like the smaller stem in the first pic. Maybe this will be the one !

It still looks a lot like Daphne laureola to me, especially the congested whorls of new growth. But I can't see the presence of this plant popping up unbidden anywhere other than the upper Pacific coast.

I think it is still a mystery :-)

I see the Daphne similarity but the leaf arrangement appears rigidly opposite.

Finally have a flower bud, there are 3. Still 10" Possibly Gentiana catesbaei ? I have given up trying to insert a pic. I have hit the submit button multiple times over a week and the post just vanishes !

Very gentianaceae! Hopefully it opens before frost!

Its in a pot, so I will be sure to not let it be hurt by a frost. I reduced the file size to finally get the pic to post even though I have posted bigger files in the past. Has the file size been reduced ?

Why do think it's catesbaei? There are about 8 Gentian species native to your stomping grounds.

At this point, its still a guess. This matched best(to me) of the species I looked at. Flower will narrow it down. BONAP only lists 4 for my region.

Maybe 8 species occur between zones 6a to 8a, but not in your specific region. It would be nice if it is catesbaei. Nice find!

Was thinking I should be seeing some color by now. Leaning more towards Gentiana villosa

You have some very nice gentiana in your area. No matter what it turns out to be, it should be nice. Interesting there's also a southern bottle gentian. I have a question. I see one gentian listed as Gentiana saponaria var. latidens, and I also see it listed as a separate species G. latidens so does anybody know what's up with that?