This Joe Pye Weed towers over my pond.
Usually it's quite a mecca for butterflies but not this year. Butterflies are scarce around here.
These two yellow swallowtails were the only ones juicing up while I took photographs.
The Joe Pye who gave his name to this plant was a Native American herbalist. Joe Pye, his anglized name, healed early colonists and taught them to use local plants. He used extracts of this particular plant to reduce fevers accompanying typhoid and other diseases. (Source: A Year Across Maryland: A Week-by-Week Guide to Discovering Nature in the Chesapeake Region by Bryan MacKay)
