Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Hypericum cistifolium Lam.
- Family: St. Johnswort (Hypericaceae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: This is one of the somewhat shrubby species of Hypericum. It differs from all the rest of the shrubby species by its leaves that are 1/4-1/2 inch wide and rolled under along the edges, its 5 yellow petals 1/4-1/3 inch long, and its 1-celled capsule.
- Habitat: Low pinelands, stream banks, flatwoods, low prairies, bogs, savannas, ditches.
- Habit: Shrub with 1-several stems.
- Stems: Upright, woody, branched or unbranched, slender, smooth, wing-angled, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, each pair at right angles to the pair above and below, elliptic to lanceolate, rounded or pointed at the tip, rounded or even slightly clasping at the sessile base, without teeth but with the edges rolled under, smooth, dotted on both surfaces, up to 1 1/2 inches long, 1/4-1/2 inch wide.
- Flowers: Several in terminal, compound cymes, up to 1/2 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, green, free from each other, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Petals: 5, yellow, free from each other, 1/4-1/3 inch long.
- Stamens: Numerous.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3.
- Fruits: Capsules ovoid, up to 1/4 inch long; seeds brown, 1/20 inch long.
- Notes: There are often short branchlets formed in the axils of the leaves.
Previous Species -- American Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Bushy St. Johnswort (Hypericum densiflorum)
