HYPERICUM PERFORATUM
Common Names:- Perforate St. Johns wort.
Homotypic Synonyms:- Hypericum perforatum var. veronense, Hypericum
veronense.
Meaning:- Hypericum (Gr) Above-pictures. A name used by the Greek physician
and botanist Dioscorides for its use over shrines to repel evil spirits.
Perforatum (L) Pierced or apparently so with small round holes.
General description:- Very variable, short to tall, glabrous, perennial, spreading
and rooting at the base.
Stems:-
1) 10-100 cm, erect from a decumbent, rooting base, 2-lined.
Leaves:-
1) (5-)8-30(-35) mm, ovate to linear, sessile or subsessile, reticulate and with
numerous large translucent dots.
Flowers:-
1) 18-22 mm, in broad panicles. Yellow,
2) Sepals, lanceolate or oblong to linear, acuminate or aristate usually entire,
without or with a few superficial black dots.
3) Petals, with a few marginal black dots, sometimes also with superficial black
dots or streaks.
4) Styles, 3.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, with dorsal vittae and lateral, oblique vittae or vesicles.
Key features:-
1) Sepals, not, or only slightly imbricate.
2) Stems, with 2 raised lines.
4) Branches of inflorescence ascending.
5) Flowerless axillary shoots present.
Habitat:- Rocky slopes with open dry shrubby vegetation and scrubland vegetation,
grassy meadows, open woodland. 0-1900 m. on various substrates.
Distribution:- Throughout Europe except the extreme north. Limited distribution on
Crete, mainly in the west.
Flowering time:- May to early Aug.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis