The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links
Photo is of parent taxon

dotted john's-wort, imperforate St. John's-wort, spotted St. John's-wort

St. John's wort family

Habit Herbs erect, with rooting, not creeping, base, forming clumps, 1.5–10 dm. Herbs, annual or perennial, subshrubs, or shrubs [trees], glabrous or hairy, hairs simple [stellate to dendroid].
Stems

internodes (at least some) 4-lined, with black glands in raised lines.

Leaves

spreading, sessile;

blade ovate, ovate-lanceolate, oblong, or elliptic, 15–50 × 10–20 mm, base cuneate to rounded, margins plane, apex rounded, midrib with 2–3 pairs of branches, tertiary veins not densely reticulate, black glands intramarginal (spaced), pale glands usually sparse or absent.

opposite [alternate or whorled], simple, estipulate, sessile, subsessile, pseudopetiolate, or petiolate;

blade with pellucid glands and/or canals containing essential oils, margins entire [rarely gland-fringed], surfaces with black, reddish, or amber glands containing hypericin and pseudohypericin.

Inflorescences

subcorymbiform to broadly pyramidal or cylindric, to 40-flowered.

terminal or axillary, cymose [thyrsoid] or solitary flowers.

Flowers

15–25(–30) mm diam.;

sepals not imbricate, spreading in fruit, broadly ovate to oblong, unequal to subequal, 4–5 × 2–3.5 mm, apex rounded-apiculate to erose-denticulate;

petals golden yellow, obovate-oblong to oblanceolate, 10–15 mm;

stamens 30–70;

anther gland black;

styles 3–4 mm.

homostylous [heterostylous];

sepals persistent or deciduous, (3–)4–5, glanduliferous like leaves;

petals persistent or deciduous, 3–5[–6], distinct, imbricate or contorted [decussate], orange, pink, or yellow, [white, red], sometimes green- or red-tinged, [sometimes with adaxial scale], glanduliferous;

stamens persistent or deciduous, in 2 whorls, sometimes in fascicles, sometimes reduced to staminodes;

filaments distinct or ± connate;

anthers 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally;

ovary superior, 2–5-merous;

placentation axile to parietal;

ovules 1–2+ on each placenta, anatropous;

styles 2–5, distinct or basally [to completely] connate, elongate;

stigmas minute or ± expanded.

Fruits

capsular [baccate], dehiscence septicidal from apex [loculicidal].

Capsules

broadly ovoid, 7–9 × 5–7 mm, with longitudinal vittae.

Seeds

scarcely carinate, 1 mm;

testa linear-reticulate.

sometimes carinate [winged or carunculate];

endosperm absent;

embryo straight [curved];

cotyledons 25–40% of total embryo length.

2n

= 32.

Hypericum maculatum subsp. obtusiusculum

Hypericaceae

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Waste places, open sites, dry or damp
Elevation 0–2500 m (0–8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ID; WA; BC; Europe [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Nearly worldwide except very cold or very dry regions; almost confined to tropics except for Hypericum and Triadenum
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The western European lowland subspecies of Hypericum maculatum has been recorded from disturbed habitats near Vancouver and Prince Rupert regions in western British Columbia for more than 50 years. There is no evidence as to whether it has persisted over the whole of this period or has been reintroduced. The mainly eastern European and Siberian subsp. maculatum is diploid (2n = 16) and has entire sepals, dotted to shortly streaked (not lined) petals, and a narrower angle of branching (ca. 30° rather than ca. 50°).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 9, species 700+ (2 genera, 58 species in the flora).

Hypericaceae flowers are always bisexual, the anther and all or part of the filament remain distinct, the cotyledons are distinct and usually 25–40% of the length of the embryo, and specialization has resulted in heterostyly. In the Calophyllaceae, the anthers and filament are distinct, the cotyledons usually form most of the embryo and may be completely connate, and specialization has resulted in dioecism. In the Clusiaceae, which are also largely dioecious, distinct anthers are often lacking, the stamens having become more or less connate in masses around the ovary, and the cotyledons are minute or absent.

The dark red compounds hypericin and pseudohypericin, naphtho-dianthrone derivatives that are widespread in the Hypericaceae, are contained within black or red gland-dots or -lines in various parts of the plant. These compounds are photosensitizing and lead to eruptions on muzzles of grazing animals. This phenomenon is especially troublesome in dry regions where

alternative fodder may be scarce, for example, California, Iraq, Australia, and South Africa. Hypericum perforatum, which is native in Iraq and introduced in the other three regions, is the main source of trouble. Reports from Ontario indicate that field workers have experienced severe reaction over prolonged exposure to H. perforatum. Hypericum perforatum is also used privately (but not prescribed) as source of an antidepressant; the relevant active ingredients for this treatment are unknown (S. L. Crockett 2003).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs; petals yellow to orange, sometimes red-tinged; stamens (5–)10–300(–650), in continuous or interrupted ring or in (3–)4–5 fascicles; filaments distinct or basally connate, staminode fascicles 0.
Hypericum
1. Herbs; petals pink or flesh-colored, sometimes green-tinged; stamens 9, in 3 fascicles; filaments 1/5–1/2+ connate, staminode fascicles 3, alternating with stamen fascicles.
Triadenum
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 99. FNA vol. 6, p. 71. Author: Norman K. B. Robson.
Parent taxa Hypericaceae > Hypericum > sect. Hypericum > Hypericum maculatum
Subordinate taxa
Hypericum, Triadenum
Synonyms H. quadrangulum subsp. obtusiusculum
Name authority (Tourlet) Hayek: Sched. Fl. Stiriac. 23 – 24: 27. (1912) Jussieu
Web links