Joe Pye Weed & Friends
re-claiming what's really beautiful
Joe Pye Weed emerges next to our new home. We are just getting to know each other and this place, but there is familiarity.1
And up the road, also in our neighborhood, Milkweed blooms in a field.2
Until this week, I’d never noticed the similarities between these two plants that are so critical to the survival of Monarch Butterflies.
Milkweed (above left) hosts late spring & early summer Monarchs who lay eggs on the underside of the leaves, which then nourish the young caterpillars before they transform. The butterflies born from these milkweed, continue migrating north into Southern Canada.
Joe Pye Weed (above right) offers nutrition to the ‘migratory generation,’ originally born in Vermont (and other places throughout the US), who in the late summer and early fall begin their 3,000 mile journey home to central Mexico for the Winter.
I am in awe of the interdependence between this one species of butterfly and these two plants. I am also in awe of my growing attention to the details of these co-evolutionary dynamics.
Perhaps it is because I am reading Robert McFarlane’s newest book Is a River Alive? and am inspired to re-animate my relationship with these vast beings in our landscape…because they are, in fact, beings…
…Creatures unlike us, yet so frighteningly connected to us - - needing the right soil, companions, and pollinators to thrive.
I remember how when I first got to know Joe Pye Weed, almost a decade ago, I focused on their ecological purpose in the garden. But at the time, I did not feel the power of that purpose…It just was.3
But this past Sunday, when the Reverend Dr. Leon Dunkley introduced June’s theme — Interdependence — I was struck by the power of that word.
Who we are is deeply intertwined with where we live. And yet our connection to and with our nearby world is often frayed. Talk of interdependence immediately calls up the work of saving the planet, rightly so. But what if the first step toward saving the planet is learning to speak to it and hear it? And what if nature itself is the only one who can help us remember?4
What if nature is the only one who can help us remember?
And what if the only way to learn from her is to keep showing up - - year after year - - and keep paying attention - - over and over again - - until the patterns and relationships among the non-human world begin to feel like an integral part of our world too?
That’s what it feels like now. Only when transplanted to this new location and put into a state of heightened awareness, am I able to not just see, but feel the energetic vibrations of these connections - - Not all the time, but when I stand, very still, with bare feet, and look deeply at the emerging pink florets, I feel a thing…
I would experience a similar energy when processing our compost or photographing particular moments in the pile, like this Joe Pye Weed mixed and mingled with a magenta egg carton and the newspaper.5
Beauty. A word corrupted by our current president and the ‘bill’, but a word that we can reclaim, as Reverend Leon invited us to do on Sunday.6
For me, the interdependent conversation between Joe Pye Weed, Milkweed, Monarchs and their friends is beauty writ large…we just have to pay attention.
So wherever you are at this moment, follow the light, explore what’s blooming, walk barefoot, breathe…and reclaim all that is truly beautiful.
With gratitude for you being you,
Lyn (& Lilly)
Staying cool with watermelon and water. What’s keeping you going these days?
I always turn to the Missouri Botanical Garden’s plant finder to gather plant essentials, like: Joe Pye Weed - - Eutrochium purpureum, member of the daisy or aster family (Asteraceae)
Genus name is derived from the Greek words eu meaning well and troche meaning wheel-like in reference to the whorled leaves. Specific epithet means purple.
Familiarity comes because, as you’ll see in the rest of this narrative, I’ve been growing JPW for almost a decade.
Also from the Missouri Botanical Garden’s plant finder: Milkweed - - Asclepias syriaca, member of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae)
Genus name honors the Greek god Asklepios the god of medicine. Specific epithet means Syrian, though it is native to North America.
It is amazing to me that Milkweed is the only food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars.
I was also curious about the name Joe Pye, which, it turns out, is connected to a real person - - Joseph Shauquethqueat, who was a Mohican sachem (tribal leader) in the 18th and early 19th century. To learn more, check out this story from the Illinois Extension.
From the North Chapel Unitarian Church, Woodstock, VT theme for the month.
Yes, being around the compost pile was visually inspiring and energetically powerful for me.
Although it hasn’t been uploaded and posted yet, at some point soon you can access Reverend Dr. Leon Dunkley's sermon on this page of the North Chapel website.
The ‘bill’ I refer to is the one recently passed by the US Senate that trashes essential social programs, gives excessive benefits to the most well off, and does nothing to support climate mitigation, crisis management, and other resources to help those most in need. Sadly, President T refers to it as a “Big Beautiful Bill.” Tragic.
Thank you for this fabulous piece. Love learning about these connections. And gorgeous images as ever.
I've been nurturing, accidentally destroying, and then recovering a teensy milkweed patch on the land around my house. It took years of not-mowing and seeding for a few to struggle up from the earth. A couple of seasons later, I mowed the hill in the Fall to knock back an invasive plant and the milkweed was destroyed. It's been another 2 years and finally two newcomers have entered the scene. I keep calling the recovery of the land from human-managed to nature-managed an experiment in me getting out of the way.