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.

Hypericum calycinum is a species of prostrate or low-growing shrub in the flowering plant family 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 same medicinally active components as H. perforatum (hyperforin etc.), though in different ratios, with adhyperforin predominating, and a low level of hyperforin present.

References

Hypericum calycinum