THANK YOU! I’ve wondered for 60+ years what the stuff I found growing near a tiny marshy stream near a campground at Shasta Lake, CA was!
I didn’t know about it either until we had an exceptionally WET year (after the drought of 2012) and everyone and their brother was bringing in a piece of it for identification to our garden center.
I was still kind of a Newbie, so I asked the oldest guy on staff and he ‘splained it to me. He also taught me to recognize Black Locust when it blooms - it’s GORGEOUS, and everyone wants one in their yard, but it is a scrap tree and quite invasive to ‘good’ woodland areas.
Voted, ‘Invasive of the Week,’ LOL!
“Because black locust fixes nitrogen in the soil and spreads clonally by suckers, it can form dense colonies that overshade and outcompete native species.”
https://mbgna.umich.edu/invasive-of-the-week-black-locust/