Joe Pye Weed

PEI’s late summer landscape belongs to the Aster Family: yellow Goldenrods, purple Asters, and – one of my personal favourites – pink Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum).

There are five Joe Pye species in North America, but Spotted Joe Pye Weed, shown here, is the only one we have on the Island. This plant can be found across the province, though I see it far more commonly in Prince County, where it grows in damp roadside ditches, meadows, and coastal areas. Spotted Joe Pye Weed is unmistakeable, reaching heights of nearly two metres (more than six feet), with long, narrow leaves in whorls around a reddish stem, topped with clusters of petal-less pink flowers.

If the plant itself hasn’t yet caught your eye, perhaps its name did; I can’t think of another Island plant seemingly named after a specific person. So, who was Joe Pye? Most published records agree that he was an Indigenous man but, beyond that, things get muddy. Various sources have him living as early as the 1600s or as late as the 1800s, and as far north as Maine or south to the Carolinas.

In 2017, Richard Pearce and James Pringle published a fascinating paper combining botany, genealogy, and anthropology. In it, they conclude that Joe Pye was Joseph Shauquethqueat, an 18^th and early-19^th century Mohican leader who lived in Massachusetts and New York. That the plant was named for him seems clear, though exactly why is less so. The most plausible explanation is that it was in recognition of the Indigenous uses of various Eutrochium species as a treatment for fever, colds, kidney stones, and respiratory ailments – uses Joseph Shauquethqueat would have known.

Here on PEI, Spotted Joe Pye Weed is a valuable member of our native flora. The flowers provide a late-season food source for pollinators, while the vegetation hosts a variety of native fall caterpillars; all these bugs provide a buffet for insect-eating birds and other wildlife. Joe Pye’s deep roots help stabilize the surrounding soil, and so this plant also provides erosion control and flood mitigation services.

If you have a sunny but damp spot on your property, Joe Pye Weed would be a worthy addition to your corner of PEI Untamed!