St John's Wort Family [Hypericaceae] |
status
flower
morph
petals
stem
stem
toxicity
27th Aug 2006, heathland, Warden Point Holiday Centre, IoW. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
This specimen is less sprawling than the Glenridding example and a little more upright. On a sandy soil here. It is a hairless perennial. |
27th Aug 2006, heathland, Warden Point Holiday Centre, IoW. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The stems are up to 20cm long. |
27th Aug 2006, heathland, Warden Point Holiday Centre, IoW. | Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone |
The stems have two lines on opposite sides. Leaves are less than 15mm long and either ovate or obovate or oblanceolate or lanceolate. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
One of the five or six that prefers acid soils and the only prostrate sprawling St John's Worts barely reaching 20cm in height. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
About half the St John's Worts are bright yellow rather than Pale yellow, and this is one of them. |
10th July 2009, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
The thin wiry stems are un-able to hold much of the plant upright. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
With pale green leaves in opposite pairs. |
10th July 2009, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
With black dots both on the edges of the petals, and on the sepals. Sepals less than twice as long as petals. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
Five rich yellow oval petals with black dots (either stalked, or sessile) on their periphery. Un-opened buds are reddish. |
10th July 2009, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Up to 15 or so stamens bearing risc-yellow pollen. Spherical ovary in centre has three styles. |
10th July 2009, Seathwaite, Borrowdale, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers are between 8 and 12mm across. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
Un-opened flower-bud. |
26th Sept 2008, Greenside Mines, Glenridding, Cumbria | Photo: © RWD |
The black glands on the leaves are only sparsely present on the sepals and petals and are either unstalked or stalked. |
Superficial resemblance to : Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature :
No relation to : Trailing Bellflower, It is said to have two thin narrow ridges running lengthways on opposite sides of the stems, but your Author thinks you have to have a bit of imagination to actually see them in photographs. It grows in open woods and dry heaths, preferring acidic soils as evidenced in the above photographs where it is accompanied by reeds and mosses. The stems yield a brown-red dye when alum is used as the mordant. The flowers, on the other hand, yield a yellow dye when alum is used as the mordant and an orange-red dye when tin is used instead. All St John's Wort plants contain Hypericin and Hyperforin as the main constituents, which together are thought to be responsible for its reported therapeutic effects which may be good for certain people (and bad for others). See Slender St John's Wort for details of these and other compounds present in the Genus.
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Hypericum | humifusum | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Hypericaceae |
Hypericum (St John's-worts) |
St John's Wort Family [Hypericaceae] |