This common shrub of the Coastal Plain, also called Summersweet, produces racemes of white to pinkish butterfly-attracting flowers in summer. The flowers have an intensely spicily sweet fragrance. Coastal Sweet Pepperbush also grows in the Piedmont at the edge of the Coastal Plain, as here.

Raven Rock State Park, Harnett Co., NC 8/18/05.

Flower detail. The related Moutain Sweet Pepperbush (C. acuminata), which grows only in the Mountains, is much larger, and has longer-pointed leaves, peeling bark, and nearly unscented flowers.

Harnett Co., NC 8/18/05.

Planted specimen, Chapel Hill, NC 8/6/05.

Planted specimen, Chapel Hill, NC 8/6/05.