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. ^ [1] Jonathan Foulds, Helena Furburg "Biosynthesis of the hyperforin skeleton in Hypericum calycinum cell cultures" Phytochemistry. 2005 Jan;66(2):139-45. PMID: 15652570 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

References

• "Hypericum calycinum". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI). Australian National Herbarium. http://www.cpbr.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?taxon_name=Hypericum%20calycinum%25. Retrieved 2008-12-18. 

Hypericum calycinum