01.
A Bit of Botany
a little botanical information on St. John's Wort
description
Hypericum perforatum is a perennial plant of the Hypericaceae family.
Commonly referred to as St. John's Wort, this plant features extensive, creeping rhizomes.
Its erect stems can grow approximately 3 feet high (1 m), and are branched in the upper
section. Growing along the stem are narrow, oblong, yellow-green leaves that have transparent dots flecked throughout the tissue, and on occasion
on the lower surface a few black dots. The leaves are opposing, stalkless, and approximately 1/2 inch long.
St. John's Wort five-petaled flowers
measure up to 1 inch across, and are a bright
yellow color with clearly evident black dots. Between late spring and early to mid summer,
the flowers present in broad cymes (flower clusters with a central stem and a single terminal flower that develops first) at the
ends of the upper branches. The flowers' pointed sepals have glandular dots in the tissue. The flowers also have many
stamens, which unite at the base into three bundles. The pollen grains
are ellipsoidal. When seed pods or flower buds are crushed a reddish/purple liquid. This does not occur
when the flowers themselves are crushed.
In more than twenty countries, St. John's Wort is listed as a noxious
weed.
common names & nomenclature
St John's day is June 24th and the serendipitous blossoming of this plant's flowers (and its resulting harvest) around that time has
lent it its common name. The genus name Hypericum is derived from the
Greek words hyper, meaning "above" and eikon meaning "picture". This is in reference to the plant's
traditional use in warding off evil. The plant would be bundled and hung in the house over a religious icon
during St John's day.
Additionally, when held to the light, the plant's leaves exhibit conspicuous translucent dots
which lends them the appearance of being 'perforated', hence the
plant's Latin name.
Also known as:
st. john’s wort, tipton's weed, rosin rose, goatweed, chase-devil, klamath weed, common st john's wort, perforate st john's wort