Most likely it is bush honeysuckle, an invasive species that is causing incredible damage in Missouri. As you've seen, it is everywhere and it prevents the establishment of native plant communities in those places where it exists. The birds actually suffer too even thriough they eat the berries, because the variety of foods and times foods are available are dimished by the honeysuckle. There has been some effort to remove it from St Louis County Parks but doing so requires a huge number of volunteers and a consistent effort. Each bush must be down down and its stump painted with glyphospate. Then the new seedlings must be treated and eventually, if enough seed sources are removed and the bushes are killed often enough, natives can reestablish. Powder Valley and parts of Forest Park have been successfully treated.

Hi Midwesternerr. Thank you so much for your answer. I am forever grateful for the expertise here. It has kept me from possibly making some horrible mistakes in plantings for our yard. Marty

No problem, here is a link I found that shows the berries so you can be sure if these are what you saw or not.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bush Honeysuckles

I can't remember seeing any bush honeysuckle here in SW Missouri but maybe I just haven't noticed it or it's more common up your way. I'm sure we'll start seeing it more often. Japanese honeysuckle vine is a nuisance here along roadsides and hard to kill.

There are some native honeysuckles that WOULD be ok to plant in your yard. Lonicera Sempervirens has a Plant of Merit award at the Missouri Botanical Gardens website. I planted that in my yard this year for hummingbirds. It has a long bloom time, showy red flowers and red berries.

If you're still not sure on the identity of the plant you saw, you could post a photo or try asking in a regional forum like the Ozarks Region forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ozarks Region Gardening

Christie, I am confident Midwesterner is correct after looking at pictures on the internet. Also, I don't remember seeing this plant 10 years ago and now I see it everywhere. The truly sad part is that it is striking now when everything is looking pretty drab. Thanks for your suggestions, though. Marty

I used to get cheered by the sight of winter hordes of robins rummaging through the leaves in my yard. Now it fills me with dread because they are innocently leaving behind the seeds of their last meals of bush honeysuckle berries. While I have noticed BH in many different places here, it has really exploded in just the last few years and now I notice seedlings everywhere. I do not have grass in my yard except for the frontage strip, and for 15 years all I really have is a lovely carpet of virginia creeper and ferns and so on, everything mainly native. This past summer I realized with a shock what these strange new bushes were I was finding everywhere, and then spent hours combing the yard, pulling up every BH seedling I could find. And boy can those things grow FAST. I was already doing this with vine honeysuckle, now I have a twofold job. This plant was never a problem before...I wonder what factors are driving this sudden expansion.
And yes, many invasives are really beautiful...it turns my stomach to say it, but a wind in a thicket of late season russian olive, with their silvery leaves all turned up and their berries shining, is quite a sight. And how many summer nights as a kid did I lay under my window at home smelling the sweet aroma of honeysuckle blooms.

Oh I so agree-I hate the dreaded japanese honeysuckle that is all over my property & pull & destroy all I can (but I am only 1 person on 3 acres) but how lovely is the smell in summer! Luckily I don't have the bush honeysuckle but instead have privet-it's in my neighbors field & the birds spread it everywhere. There is also non-native bittersweet showing up close by but none on my property yet-another pretty but invasive plant. I've heard it can even be spread from decorative wreaths you buy in the fall but don't know if that is factual or an urban myth. By the way White Shoulders smells like honeysuckle-at least to me!
Susan

Although Bush Honeysuckle grows well in deep, moist soil it can also grow in very thin soil layers, even growing out of the places that normally only a cedar could survive in. Drive anywhere around St. Louis and you can see them forcing their way out of the thinnest soils and rock crevices as well as completely taking over in moist woods.

It produces tons of berries that are attractive to birds, it can grow in intense sun or shade, it can grow in deep or thin soils, it grows quickly and vigerously, and it has a long growing season.

Its disadvantages are that it is easy to identify, especially when it is about the only thing still leafed out which makes erradication efforts easier since less skilled personnel are needed, it is suseptible to concentrated glyphospate, and it creates such a disaster that eventually municipalities are forced to deal with it.

midwesternerr,
What a strange coincidence. I was taking my mom to Barnes just the other day and as we drove down the bluffs out of Fairview Heights/ Collinsville toward the bottoms I was sadly noticing all the masses of still-green bush and vine honeysuckle. It's almost viral, the way these things take over. ANd I just finished breaking and jerking and otherwise doing the best I could to uproot a large individual I discovered yesterday in the middle of our floodplain forest, which kinda caught me offguard...this area is so frequently waterlogged that I don't normally have to worry much about even vine honeysuckle taking root. Yet there it was, and I guess it must have been there a few years. Probably overlooked it in the summer greenness and now that everything is leafless and brown, that green really stands out.

Oh gosh..........we have invasive honeysuckle all through our 33 acres, and I can see that its spreading across our county.
Yes, its pretty and it feeds the birds, but dang, it ruins everything else!

Pretty - maybe. Good for birds - absolutely not. From what I have been told by the wildlife biologists, only a small handful of birds can utilize the berries from this plant. The plants that have been replaced by the honeysuckle would have sustained a larger variety of species, provided better cover, and given them a more nutritious meal.