This bugbane (Actaea racemosa) had been growing very happily for several years. This spring it came up, leafed out and bloomed... and then suddenly last week the leaves and unripe fruits all turned black. There's been a lot of rain here (Zone 6) in June and July but everything else seems to be doing very well with the wet.
In this first pic the bugbane is the dead leaves foreground left, with its flower stalk going up out of frame. The yellow-green leaves behind the stalk are a couple of doll's eyes (Actaea pachypoda) that have had the same history and are starting to go the same way.
Here are the failed fruits. The bloom seemed perfectly normal and the berries were starting to develop in the usual way. The doll's eyes has not bloomed. It looks to me like too much water, but they're supposed to like Moist... It gets morning sun; things around it are jewelweed, Joe Pye weed, swamp verbena and some rushes.
