Spotted Joe Pye Weed

(Eutrochium maculatum)

Other Names:
Gravel root, joe-pye weed , kidney root, purple boneset, tall boneset, trumpet weed

Range:


Family:
Asteraceae - Aster Family

Growth Type:
Herbaceous perennial

Height:
2 to 6 feet tall.

Leaves:
Large dark green, ovate to lanceolate, leaves with serrated edges are arranged in whorls or 4 or 5 along the stem.

Stem/Trunk:
Stems are pubescent, purple, or purple spotted.

Root:
Rhizome

Flower Season:
Late summer

Flower Appearance:
Fragrant purple flowers, in flat-topped clusters of 9 or more florets per head.

Seed/Fruit:
Small dry seed with hair-like bristles

Miscellaneous characteristics:
Plants are typically single stalked.

Habitat:
Preferring full sun of ditches, marshes, rich fens, and swamps. Can sometimes find in partial shade.

Parts Used:
Food: Entire plant
Medicine: Root/Rhizome

Culinary Uses:
Prior to flowering, the entire plant can be cooked an eaten as a stewed vegetable.

Energetics
Taste: Bitter
Thermal: Cooling
Humidity: Drying

Traditional Medicinal Uses:
Arthritis, Cystitis, Dysuria, Gout, Hematuria, Prostatitis, Urethritis, Urinary Calculus.
An excellent antimicrobial. Legend has it that Joe Pye was the name of an Indian who used a decoction of the plant's rhizome to cure typhus in colonial America. Historically E. maculatum has been used to treat urinary tract infections and Kidney stones. This is the reason for the common name gravel root. With an affinity for the genitourinary tract, it is called for in acute and subacute dysuria, cystitis. urethritis, vesical and prostrate irritability with or without sediment; works on mucosa, not infectious agent. Here is a link to a 2008 article published in the Journal of Medicinal Plants, detailing the antimicrobial activity of E.maculatum.

Medicinal Actions:
Anti-Inflammatory, Antilithic, Antimicrobial, Bitter, Cathartic, Diuretic, Emetic, Febrifuge, Nervine