Eutrochium purpureum (Eupatorium purpureum (Linnaeus) E.E. Lamont), Kidney-root, Sweet-scented Joe-Pie weed, Sweet Joe-Pye weed, Gravel Root, or Trumpet weed, is an herbaceous perennial plant native to northwest, eastern, and central North America.
E. Purpureum is a clump forming plant that grows to 1.5 - 2.4m tall and about 1.2m wide. Plants are found in full sun to part shade in moisture retentive to wet soils. Stems are upright, thick, round, and purple, with whorls of leaves at each node. As the plant begins to bloom, the stems often bend downward under the weight of the flowers. The leaves grow to 30cm long and have a somewhat wrinkled texture. The purplish colored flowers are produced in large, loose, convex shaped compound corymbiform arrays. Plants bloom mid- to late summer and attract much activity from insects that feed on the nectar produced by the flowers. This species hybridizes readily with other species of Eutrochium, and where this species and those species overlap in distribution, the resulting plants can be difficult to resolve to a specific taxon. There are two varieties that differ in the pubescence of the stems ad foliage, but many more have been proposed in the past, though most authorities now accept that this is a variable species and population variations integrate.
It is larval host to the eupatorium borer moth (Carmenta bassiformis), the red groundling moth (Perigea xanthioides), the ruby tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa), and the three-lined flower moth (Schinia trifascia).
The larvae of Calycomyza flavinotum, a leaf miner fly, also create blotch-shaped mines on the leaves.
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