A popular pollinator with a backstory
One of the great mysteries of the botanical world is solved. Joe Pye – the eponym for Joe Pye weed – has been identified! According to legend, there once was an Indian medicine man named Joe Pye who used concoctions from a wild plant found growing in the nearby woods to cure typhoid fever. His brew is said to have halted an epidemic that raged in Colonial Massachusetts and the plant became forever known as Joe Pye weed. For years, it was unknown if Joe Pye was a real person or a botanical myth.
Spotted Joe Pye weed, eupatorium purpureum, is an autumn superstar of a wildflower, standing tall along the side of the trail, head topped with a frothy crown of rounded mauve flower clusters. The richly vanilla-scented blooms delight the noses of sensitive trail walkers and are frequented by the prettiest butterflies and bees.
“The last of the Mohican’s flowers have faded behind my stone wall, to await their darkly burning return.”
Richard Brookhiser
Recently two serious botanists set about to learn more. James Pringle, Plant Taxonomist at Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, and Richard Pierce PhD, American botanist and botanical artist, put their brilliant heads together and, after years of research involving dozens of libraries, museums and historical archives, concluded that, indeed, Joe Pye was the nickname of Joseph Shauquethqueat, a leader and healer of the Mohican people living in western Massachusetts in the late 18th century. For the scientifically curious, here’s a link to their research paper.
Shauquethqueat is also credited with saving the lives of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and hundreds of soldiers during the American Revolution. Although the details remain sketchy, it is clear that for many years Joe Pye was a leader of his people, much concerned about their well-being, and it is appropriate that he should have his rightful place in botanical history.
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