British Native Trees
and Shrubs

Tutsan Hypericum androsaemum (Clusiaceae)

The shrubby, semi-evergreen tutsan is a handsome plant with bright yellow, starry flowers sprouting a mass of stamens at the centre and in the autumn a crop of showy fruits. Its woody, branched, two-ridged stems usually reach about 60 cm in height and carry pairs of smooth, ovate to oblong, stalkless leaves each up to 9 cm long. From June to August groups of up to nine five-petalled flowers appear in branched clusters at tops of stems, each flower having five oval, often reddish-tinged, sepals and tufts of stamens almost as long as the petals. The rounded, berry-like fruits turn from red to succulent, purplish-black when ripe, containing numerous oblong seeds.

Tutsan is widespread in woodland and on hedgebanks on damp, moderately acid to base-rich soils in the lowlands of southern and western England, especially Devon and Cornwall, but is only thinly scattered elsewhere and almost absent from the north-east.

It is a valuable, long-flowering species which is ideal for a shrub or mixed border in moderate or even fairly deep shade where the soil does not dry out. It tolerates a wide range of soils providing there is some moisture. The dried leaves smell sweetly resinous and have been used as scented bookmarks, whilst the fresh leaves were formerly used to dress cuts and grazes, hence the name Tutsan derived from the old French for ‘all healthy’. Propagate by sowing seed in autumn in a cold frame, by dividing or by rooting semi-ripe cuttings in summer.

Though lacking nectar, the bright colour of the flowers and the abundant pollen produced by the numerous stamens attract many pollen-eating and pollinating beetles and other insects.

Page last updated - January 10, 2002  

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