Perforate St John's Wort

The petals of Perforate St John's Wort are dotted black, especially on the margins.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Hypericum perforatum
Family: 
St John's Worts
Family Latin name: 
HYPERICACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

The leaves of this native plant are oval to linear with translucent dots. There are two raised lines down the stem. The petals are dotted black, especially on the margins. This plant flowers from July.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

The St John's Worts have opposite, untoothed, resinous dotted leaves, which may be dotted with tiny black or translucent spots. The flowers are radially symmetrical. St John's Wort tea or tincture is taken for depression, anxiety, menstrual tension, and used externally to treat cuts and burns. This family of flowers was used as symbolic of the sun, as were other yellow flowers, and they protected against demons, faeries, witchcraft, poisons, and poisonous animal bites, especially at midsummer. They could also predict the future if picked and kept indoors after making a wish. If still fresh next morning the wish would come true.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.