Joe Pye (Jopi in the Native tongue),an Indian healer from New England, used Eutrochium purpureum to treat a variety of ailments, which led to the name Joe-Pye weed for these plants. Folklore says that Joe Pye used this plant to cure fevers. Folklore also states that American colonists used this plant to treat typhus outbreaks. The author Hemmerly writes that the Indians used Joe Pye Weed in the treatment of kidney stones and other urinary tract ailments. This plant can grow from 3 to 12 feet tall.