Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Hypericum prolificum L.
- Family: St. John's-wort (Guttiferae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: This species is distinguished by its shrubby habit, its flowers about 1 inch across, and its numerous stamens.
- Habitat: Swamps, damp thickets, pastures.
- Habit: Shrub up to 8 feet tall, the bark shredding when old.
- Stems: Much branched, distinctly 2-edged, smooth.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, linear to oblong, rounded at the tip, tapering to the base, without teeth, smooth, up to 2 1/2 inches long, up to 3/4 inch wide; leaf stalk very short.
- Flowers: Few to several in cymes yellow, each flower up to 1 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, smooth, lanceolate, pointed at the tip, up to 1/3 inch long.
- Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, striate, up to 1/2 inch long.
- Stamens: Numerous and almost completely overlapping the petals, creating a powder-puff appearance.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3-4, united at first but separating as the fruit opens.
- Fruits: Capsules ovoid, elongated, up to 3/4 inch long, up to 1/4 inch wide, smooth, containing numerous seeds.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this family Clusiaceae..
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