diff --git a/src/include/OSL/oslquery.h b/src/include/OSL/oslquery.h
index a7960ac79d..75766374e0 100644
--- a/src/include/OSL/oslquery.h
+++ b/src/include/OSL/oslquery.h
@@ -97,6 +97,11 @@ class OSLQUERYPUBLIC OSLQuery {
         Parameter(Parameter&& src);
         const Parameter& operator=(const Parameter&);
         const Parameter& operator=(Parameter&&);
+
+        /// Return the type as a string ("float", "color[7]", etc.)
+        std::string type_name() const;
+        /// Set the type as a string
+        void type_name(const std::string& typestring);
     };
 
     /// OSLQuery methods
diff --git a/src/liboslquery/oslquery.cpp b/src/liboslquery/oslquery.cpp
index 1ea3effae2..9a741a5156 100644
--- a/src/liboslquery/oslquery.cpp
+++ b/src/liboslquery/oslquery.cpp
@@ -351,6 +351,22 @@ OSLQuery::Parameter::operator=(Parameter&& src)
 
 
 
+std::string
+OSLQuery::Parameter::type_name() const
+{
+    return type.c_str();
+}
+
+
+
+void
+OSLQuery::Parameter::type_name(const std::string& typestring)
+{
+    type = TypeDesc(typestring);
+}
+
+
+
 OSLQuery::OSLQuery() {}
 
 
diff --git a/src/liboslquery/py_osl.cpp b/src/liboslquery/py_osl.cpp
index 56a2f70a2f..a4b904a913 100644
--- a/src/liboslquery/py_osl.cpp
+++ b/src/liboslquery/py_osl.cpp
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ declare_oslqueryparam(py::module& m)
                                    return PY_STR(p.name.string());
                                })
         .def_readwrite("type", &Parameter::type)
+        .def_property(
+            "type_name",
+            [](const Parameter& p) { return PY_STR(p.type_name()); },
+            [](Parameter& p, const std::string& t) { p.type_name(t); })
         .def_readwrite("isoutput", &Parameter::isoutput)
         .def_readwrite("varlenarray", &Parameter::varlenarray)
         .def_readwrite("isstruct", &Parameter::isstruct)
@@ -171,9 +175,6 @@ declare_oslquery(py::module& m)
 
 PYBIND11_MODULE(oslquery, m)
 {
-    // Force an OIIO module load so we have TypeDesc, among other things.
-    py::module oiio = py::module::import("OpenImageIO");
-
     // Global (OSL scope) functions and symbols
     m.attr("osl_version")    = OSL_VERSION;
     m.attr("VERSION")        = OSL_VERSION;
diff --git a/testsuite/python-oslquery/src/test_oslquery.py b/testsuite/python-oslquery/src/test_oslquery.py
index 720c9ad268..129155c05a 100755
--- a/testsuite/python-oslquery/src/test_oslquery.py
+++ b/testsuite/python-oslquery/src/test_oslquery.py
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ def printparam(p, indent="    ") :
         # as tuples.
         print (indent, "{}{} {} = {}".format(
                     "output " if p.isoutput else "",
-                    p.type, p.name,
-                    "'{}'".format(p.value) if p.type == "string" else p.value))
+                    p.type_name, p.name,
+                    "'{}'".format(p.value) if p.type_name == "string" else p.value))
     if p.spacename :
         print (indent, "    space:", p.spacename)
     # Metadata are themselves another tuple of Parameter objects hanging off