An August 2011 tiger swallowtail sips the sweet pink duskiness of Joe-Pye
When I was young and green and growing (many years ago!) in my home-state of Alabama, I had a favorite roadside wildflower. On short road trips or long in August and September, I looked for this tall, regal plant with large domes of dusky pink blooms. She often rose high above brilliant goldenrods and yellow tickseed blooms in the damp ditches alongside the roads and highways. I didn't know her name then, but several years after I had moved to North Carolina, a friend gave me a copy of the first edition of Wildflowers of North Carolina, a treasured collection of wildflower photos and descriptions by Ritchie Bell and William Justice (the second edition includes the work of a third author, Anne Lindsey, wife of Ritchie Bell). I learned then that this beautiful native flower was commonly called Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum). I also learned another of her common names, Queen of the Meadow, which rightly acknowledges her regal nature. Naming gave her even more power in my mind, and I secretly hungered to see her in the Joe-Pye-less months of the year and found welcome sustenance in spotting her along the roadways in August and September.
Today this Queen grows in my own garden, which seems a small miracle to me. She starts rising in late June and into July. Then in August, there she is, in all her tall dusky pink beauty. Beauty that is only intensified when butterflies gather to sip her sweet nectars. This late summer, the butterflies are few in number (they were so numerous in my garden this past spring!), but some still find her (see tiger swallowtail above). At any one time last August, I might see over a dozen butterflies working over the pink blooms.
Above, August 2010 butterflies feed on Joe-Pye weed blooms in my garden
Joe-Pye grows from southern Canada to Florida and as far west as Texas. In addition to Joe-Pye Weed and Queen of the Meadow, she has other common names -- Gravel Root, Kidney Root and Purple Boneset --which allude to her uses in traditional Native American medicines. Huron H. Smith, Curator of Botany of the Milwaukee Public Museum from 1917-1925, studied traditional medicines of Native American tribes of Wisonsin. Following is an excerpt from his article about the Forest Potawatomi in which he describes some of the uses of Joe-Pye Weed.
"Fresh leaves of Joe-Pye weed are used by the Potawatomi to make poultices for healing burns. Mrs. Spoon used the root under the name “maskwano’kûk” [red top] as a medicine to clear up after-birth. Among the whites, the root and the herb have both been used for medicines. The root is said to have diuretic, stimulant, astringent and tonic properties, while the plant itself is diuretic and tonic.
“The Herbalist says that the root has diuretic, astringent and tonic properties and has been used by eclectic practitioners in the treatment of chronic urinary disorders, hematuria, gout and rheumatism. The Forest Potawatomi use the flowering tops of the Joe Pye Weed as a good luck talisman. When one is going to gamble he places the tops in his pocket and then is sure to win a lot of money.”
Apparently the most widely known of this herb's common names was adopted when a Native American named Joe Pye reportedly cured a case of typhus with it. Some Native American tribes still consider the plant to be an aphrodisiac. A tea made from infusions of blooms, leaves and/or roots has been used to help break a high fever and for kidney and urinary problems, rheumatism, gravel (gallstones) and edema.
With her attractive elements of not only beauty and grace, but also traditional healing properties, Joe-Pye is indeed Queen of the Meadow.
