British Native Trees
and Shrubs

Perforate St John's-Wort Hypericum perforatum (Clusiaceae)

Copious of flow’rs the woodbine, pale and wan,
But well compensating her sickly looks
With never-cloying odours, erly and late;
Hypericum, all bloom, so thick a swarm
Of flow’rs, like flies clothing her slender rods,
That scarce a leaf appears, mezereon, too…

The Winter Walk at Noon - From The Task
William Cowper [1731-1800]

This small, clump-forming perennial shrub has an even longer flowering period that the H. androsaemum with numerous flowers that are as large as those of Tutsan but with smaller leaves and spear-shaped sepals. The hairless, upright, two-ridged stem has a woody base and carries the curiously-marked foliage that gives it the Latin name perforatum, for each of the paired, elliptical to narrowly-oblong, stalkless leaves is covered with translucent glands that look like punctures. Bright yellow, star-shaped, five-petalled flowers with pin-cushion stamens appear in widely-branched clusters from June to September and they, too, are dotted with glands which show black on the edges of the petals. The almost pear-shaped fruit capsule contains numerous, oblong, pitted seeds and splits into three.

Perforate St. John’s-wort is the most common hypericum in England, found in grassland, open woodland and on hedgebanks, mainly on lime-rich soils.

It can be grown in a shrub border, on a dryish bank, or naturalized in a meadow area. The plant is particularly useful for dry shade on chalky soil, one of the most difficult situations in a garden, although in cultivation it tolerates a wide range of well-drained soils in sun or semi-shade. It was named after St. John’s Day, June 24, when it was picked for ritual and medicinal use. Propagation is by taking cuttings of the new season’s young shoots in late spring or early summer, or by division. Seeds may be sown in a cold frame in early spring or outside in April. The fine seed germinates more readily on damp soil.

Bee-flies visit the flowers for their accessible nectar.

Page last updated - January 10, 2002  

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