Pye in the Eye

Sep 28, 2010

You gotta love the Joe-Pye Weed.

It's a shady character and a late bloomer. That is, it loves the shade and blooms in the late summer and early fall. 

Better yet, bees and butterflies love it. 

Once you hear the distinctive name, Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) you'll never forget it.

We're told that Joe Pye was a Native American Indian herbalist who used the perennial to treat an outbreak of typhus among the colonists of Massachusetts Bay. The grateful colonists immortalized him by naming the plant for him.

Sometimes it's called "Queen of the Meadow." Sometimes it's called "gravel root." And sometimes "snakeroot."

No matter what you call this four-foot-high plant, the name that really sticks is "Joe-Pye Weed."

Insects can get Pye in their eye.


By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Author - Communications specialist

Attached Images:

HONEY BEE forages on Joe-Pye Weed, a perennial that blooms in the late summer and early fall. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Bee on Joe-Pye Weed

CLOSE-UP of a honey bee on Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-Up