Joe-pye-weed
(Eupatorium purpureum)
sweet Joe-pye weed, gravel root , queen-of-the-meadow,
purple boneset
Description:
A tall, graceful plant with rigid, erect stems, 5-12 feet tall,
purple above the joints, and covered with elongated spots and
lines. Leaves are oblong, pointed, rough above, downy beneath
and in whorls of 4-5 on the stem with margins that are coarsely
and unequally toothed. The stalks are either short or merely
represented by the contracted base of leaves. Purple flowers
are in dense terminal inflorescence and the heads very numerous.
Found throughout eastern U.S. in low, swampy ground.
Medicinal:
It is a diuretic and nervine. The leaf and root tea is prepared
for a valuable remedy in edema, painful urination, gravel, gout,
rheumatism, chronic renal and cystic troubles, colds, chills,
fevers, diarrhea, liver and kidney problems. The popular name
of Jopi or Joe-pye is taken from an American Indian who introduced
sweating, for typus fever.
