Joe Pye Weed - Traditional Herbal Medicine

One of the loveliest among wildflowers is Joe Pye weed. Traditional herbal medicine standby that it is, the plant also attracts butterflies and produces fragrant blooms from midsummer until fall.

The name Joe Pye weed is said to come from an Indian healer, possibly named Jopi, who used it to cure typhus in New England. The title does the plant no justice, however. Though it is a wildflower, it never looks weedy. It is also called trumpetweed, purple boneset, gravel root, kidney root, snakeroot and Queen of the Meadow.

Appearance

This tall, graceful plant blooms from July until frost in many zones. Small flowers, about a third of an inch across, are borne in dense clusters that can be flat on top or domed. Flower heads can be a foot or more in width.

Joe Pye smells like vanilla, though the intensity of the scent varies with the variety and growing conditions. Flowers can be white, lavender, every shade of pink, wine or purple.

Plants spread in clumps and form dense stands in moist lowlands. They can be 10 feet or more in height, though dwarf varieties are also grown.

Leaves are long ovals, often pointed, with toothed borders. They grow in whorls, with four to eight leaves sprouting from one node on the stem. The root is woody and purplish brown, and the rhizome has cream-ivory interior flesh.

Spotted Joe Pye weed has splotched stems with purple or dark red spots. Little Joe Pye weed might grow only three or four feet tall. Gateway is only slightly taller, with intensely mauve flowers. Bushy Chocolate has purple-tinged leaves on violet stems and abundant white blooms.

Cultivation

A perennial, Joe Pye weed can be started from seed. The small, flossy seeds are collected by tying bags around ripening flower heads, or plants can be allowed to self-sow. If sowing seeds, merely press them into the soil or cover them very lightly.

The plant also propagates itself with spreading rhizomes. These bulb-like knots on the roots can be dug up and replanted in the fall or early spring. Divide plants when they appear crowded, perhaps every other year. The plant can also be propagated from stem cuttings.

Though its different species like slightly different conditions, in general, Joe Pye will prosper in moist soil with partial shade to full sun. In full sun, some varieties are prone to rank growth and weak stems.

Growing wild

Bees and butterflies feast on the flower nectar. Ducks, field mice and turkeys eat the seeds. Rabbits and deer enjoy the foliage.

The plant grows wild in deserted fields and has earned the name Queen of the Meadow. Spotted Joe Pye weed, with its speckled or purple-red stems, forms thickets along the borders of streams.

Joe Pye weed is indigenous in the eastern United States and is also found somewhat farther west in the northern states and Canada. Plants that probably escaped from settlers' herb gardens grow in damp roadside ditches in California.

Uses

Traditional herbal medicine prescribed trumpetweed to treat many conditions. One use was as an aphrodisiac. Users apparently chewed pieces of the dried root to encourage performance.

An infusion of the dried root was believed to improve circulation and to encourage sweating to break a fever. It was also used as a diuretic. Some practitioners believed it was of use for gallstones and called it gravelroot.

A tisane made from the plant's dried flowers and taken as an herbal tea was used to relieve colds and chills and to ease pain after childbirth. The dried leaves were burned to repel flies and gave off an apple scent.

Some tribes of Indians believed that the green leaves could be gathered any time in the growing season. The roots were harvested after the first frost. Alternatively, the whole plant could be pulled and hung to dry when in full bloom.

Old recipes suggest adding half an ounce of dried root to a cup of boiling water, steeping the mixture for half an hour and straining. The sufferer would take half a cup morning and evening.

Flower tea was made with a pint of water and a tablespoon of flowers and was steeped for 15 minutes. Users drank a quarter of a cup three times a day. These days, people worry about allergic reactions, dosage and hygiene.

Modern gardeners are more likely to grow Joe Pye weed for its beauty and enduring bloom than its medicinal properties. It makes a fine background for the herb garden, especially with some moderately tall herbs in front of it. It also makes a good hedge or a focus point for a perennial border in a cottage garden.