Sweet-Scented Joe-Pye Weed,  Eupatorium purpureum
Asteraceae or Sunflower Family

Tall, robust plant with leaves in whorls of 3 to 4 around the stem.  Leaves are elongated egg-shaped with long pointed tips and coarse teeth.  Stems are solid purple at the bases of the leaves.  Flowers in branching, somewhat domed clusters, each cylindrical, pale pink to almost white with long, protruding stigmas.  Smells of vanilla when bruised.  Blooms in the summer

Native species of rich woods.  In Wildwood occasional in shaded woods.

Trumpetweed, also called Joe-Pye weed, is common in Wildwood, but prefers moist, open, sunny areas.  It has purple flowers, and narrower leaves with blunter teeth.  Bonesets, also in the genus Eupatorium, have truly white flowers.  They can easily be distinguished from this species by having their leaves in pairs instead of whorls. False boneset (Brickellia eupatorioides) has leaves that are not opposite each other.