First picture looks like seedling black cherries (Prunus serotina).

Fourth one is a common briar - will get tiny fruits if it flowers.

Oh wow...I don't know where they would have come from if it is the black cherries. But they are coming up all over our wooded area. Should I just let them keep growing or pull them out? They are everywhere though in one spot in particular. Hmm...

Will have to get rid of the briars as they are very thorny and I have small kiddos. They hurt!

Thanks so much!!!

Let the briar patch be. Its a right of passage for rugrats to get ate up by a briar patch.
Plant em if you got em.
Sam

The first one is a weedy tree that grows everywhere in Alabama-I don't know the name of it but I weed out the seedlings in spring. The second is a toad lily (Tricyrtis), the third is an Astilbe, the fourth is most likely a wild blackberry (briar). I would keep the second and third plants.

Susan.

Wild Cherry trees are weedy, weak, trashy trees. (In my opinion.) They do not make cherries, so that can make them a bit difficult to identify if you don't know what you are looking for. Their mature leaves are identical to the seedling leaves, and they bloom about now with trusses of tiny little white flowers. Those flowers, of course, make seeds, which make the gazillions of seedlings. If you can locate the tree(s) nearby, they are usually fairly easy to cut down. Use stump killer on the fresh cut to avoid fighting suckers.

As far as the wild blackberry is concerned, they are very difficult to dig up because their roots run everywhere. There is a spray you can use that will kill them to the root. However, they are so pervasive that it seems to be an unending battle. But if you quit, they take over everything.

Sorry, but I cannot agree with sam. A child could get seriously scratched and eaten up with redbugs in a blackberry thicket. My two children grew up happy, healthy, and well adjusted without that ordeal. :)

Those flowers, of course, make seeds, which make the gazillions of seedlings.

They make tiny berries (cherries) which have seeds in them.

This is an extremely important tree for the local ecosystem in which it resides. Over 400 different types of Lepidoptera use it as a host plant to lay eggs on. These turn into caterpillars which are an important source of food for baby birds.

Mature cherry trees have fabulous wood - people make furniture from it.

I agree that you may not want one hanging over your driveway, but having a few in the fringe of your yard fosters birds in your area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prunus serotina

Dear lat4005:
In answer to your question about where cherry, and other, seedlings come from: It's a cycle of nature. Trees bloom and set fruit. The fruit ripens. Birds and some other creatures are attracted to the fruit as a food source. They eat and enjoy the fruit. They fly, or scamper, away. They beshit the seeds in a new location. The seeds germinate and create new plants. As it says in _Genesis_: Be fruitful and multiply. Replenish the earth.

First looks exactly like a cherry laurel to me (I live on a street called Cherry Laurel Drive FWIW!) VERY invasive, messy and fast-growing tree that IMO, you do not want near your house...as mentioned maybe on the periphery of your yard. Birds certainly DO love them, and every year we feel like we are living Hitchcock's The Birds movie, as we are literally swarmed by robins attacking these trees come spring. Hundreds and HUNDREDS of robins descend on these trees to eat the fruit.

Definitely keep that astilbe! Love those...

No idea what the second pic is, but looks like it has some problems whatever it is...spots on leaves?

The first pic definitely is a Black Cherry....which is not a tree I consider worth keeping.....donnabaskets is totally correct

It does look like Astilbe leaves, but from my experience the Cimicifuga (bugbane) young leaves can look practically the same. It is a stately wildflower, you may like it.

The second one looks more like a smartweed/knotweed (Polygonum). It is a common weed that roots easily, so don't throw it onto wet soil or it will start growing again!

Second picture is tricyrtis "toad lily". The speckled leaves aren't sickly...beautiful little flowers to enjoy close up in the fall. We lost and enormous black cherry in a recent tornado and I will miss it terribly, as will the birds. The cherries were tiny but very sweet.