Hypericum calycinum

Hypericum calycinum
Bauer's Illustration from Sibthorp's Flora Graeca
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Hypericaceae
Genus: Hypericum
Species: H. calycinum
Binomial name
Hypericum calycinum
L.[1]

Hypericum calycinum is a prostrate or low-growing shrub species of the genus Hypericum (Hypericaceae). Widely cultivated for its large yellow flowers, its names as a garden plant include Rose of Sharon in Britain and Australia, and Aaron's beard, Great St-John's wort, and Jerusalem star. Grown in Mediterranean climates, widely spread in the Strandja Mountains along the Bulgarian and Turkish Black Sea coast.

Description

It is a low, creeping, woody shrub to about 1 m tall and 1–2 m wide but often smaller. The green, ovate leaves grow in opposite pairs. The solitary flowers are 3–5 cm in diameter, a rich yellow, with five petals and numerous yellow stamens. It is indigenous to southeast Europe and southwest Asia. It is a popular, semi-evergreen garden shrub with many named cultivars and hybrids derived from it.

In North America the name Rose of Sharon is applied to a species in a different order, Hibiscus syriacus.

This species is capable of producing the medicinally active components of H. perforatum (hyperforin etc.), though in different ratios, with adhyperforin predominating, and a low level of hyperforin present.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Linnaeus, C. von (1767), Mantissa Plantarum 1: 106 [tax. nov.] Type: "Habitat in America septentrionali?"
  2. ↑ Klingauf, P; Beuerle, T; Mellenthin, A; El-Moghazy, SA; Boubakir, Z; Beerhues, L (January 2005). "Biosynthesis of the hyperforin skeleton in Hypericum calycinum cell cultures.". Phytochemistry 66 (2): 139–45. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2004.11.003. PMID 15652570.

References

Hypericum calycinum
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hypericum calycinum.