Joe Pye Weed

Joe Pye Weed

Common name:  Joe Pye Weed

Scientific name:  Eutrochium dubium ‘Little Joe’ and ‘Baby Joe’

Family:  Aster, Daisy, or Composite; Asteraceae

Bloom period:  July to September

What to look for:  Small, fragrant, mauve to dark purple purple flowers arranged in 4-7” wide corymbs (dome-shaped clusters).  The cultivar ‘Baby Joe’ grows up to 4’ tall; the other, ‘Little Joe,’ is shorter, growing to approximately 3’. 

Where to see it:  Scattered throughout both building 1 and 2 butterfly gardens.

Benefit to pollinators:  Their frothy, fragrant flowerheads attract many butterflies and bees, including swallowtails, fritillaries, skippers, bumblebees, and carpenter bees.  The seeds provide food for songbirds.

More info:  E. dubium is a close relative to E. purpureum.  The story is that a Mohican chief named Schauquethqueat, who lived in the mission town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts from ca. 1740 to ca. 1785, had taken the Christian name, Joseph Pye.  Joe-Pye was an herbalist and healer who used preparations of local E. purpureum to treat a variety of ailments, especially fevers.  His treatment is said to have halted an epidemic of typhoid fever that raged in Colonial Massachusetts.  Since then, this plant and its close relatives are known as Joe-Pye weed.