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Joe-pye-weeds have always been very memorable for me.  As a grade-schooler, I found the hollow stems of one of them made great peashooters.  Sweet-scented joe-pye-weed really does live up to its species name, purpureum.  It is most often the darker color shown here.  For some reason I find the pale form a more interesting image, but it is probably not the best illustration.  In my experience, the plant seems to have paler, and therefore brighter flowers in more shady situations.  I could build a whole hypothesis around these few observations, and what it could mean for the plant's pollination syndrome.  But I really don't know.