Thank you! Yes I looked at all the photos here and they were very helpful, but I would really like to find someone who can confirm for me what kind they are if possible. I have very little experience identifying plants and I have no experience with beautyberries.
I would love for them to be native, because that would mean I could feel good about propagating them and sharing the berries with friends so they could grow their own native plants too. But that would be a horrible idea if they're one of the non-native ones! Although it may be iffy to share anyway if it's "native" but from someplace relatively far away via a nursery yard planting. I don't know how this particular plant ended up in this particular garden bed. I know there are a few native nurseries around here that collect seed from nearby wilderness areas so I might do better to look into getting plants from there if I really want something native to this area. Heck I guess I could do my own wilderness seed collecting if I really want to.
My other reason for concern is that I want to eat them, but I'm not sure if they're safe to eat. From what I've seen so far American Beautyberry is somewhat edible, but the other kinds are not.
