Trailing St John's-wort - Hypericum humifusum
Many of the Hypericum genus are tall plants with striking flowers but this one is a usually a prostrate plant trailing flat along the ground. The small (8 to 10 mm) yellow flowers only open in full sun so it can be easily missed. The petals are hardly longer than sepals. The stems branch and root at the base.
See ID Aids below.
This is the only procumbent Hypericum recorded in VC55, but it can be at least partly upright. Stems have 2 lines; sepals are unequal; petals less than twice as long as sepals. Black glands on leaves; a few on petals and sepals
The St John's Wort (Hypericum) family are attractive, yellow-flowered perennials. They can look confusingly similar but can be distinguished by careful examination of key features. A hand-lens may be required (depending how good your eyesight is!). The leaf perforations are visible as translucent dots if the leaf is held up to the light.
A photo of the plant in its habitat
Usually on acid soil and favouring dry sandy or rocky places.
Perennial.
Widespread and fairly frequent from most of Britain except the far north of Scotland and a small area around The Wash.
Nearly scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 22 of the 617 tetrads.
In the VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native; now scarce.
It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but does not meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)
sue
Nailstone Wiggs
03 June 2023
sue
Nailstone Wiggs
03 June 2023
sue
Nailstone Wiggs
03 June 2023
sue
Nailstone Wiggs
03 June 2023
David Nicholls
Bradgate Park
05 July 2013
David Nicholls
Bradgate Park
05 July 2013
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Species profile
- Common names
- Trailing St. John's-Wort, Trailing St John's-wort
- Species group:
- Wildflowers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Malpighiales
- Family:
- Hypericaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 3
- First record:
- 05/07/2013 (Nicholls, David)
- Last record:
- 03/06/2023 (Timms, Sue)
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% of records within its species group
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