Saturday, June 18, 2011

Four-petal St. John's-wort - Hypericum tetrapetalum

Four-petal St. John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapetalum) occurs statewide in Florida; primarily in moist soil habitats, but also in upland ecotones where soils are occasionally more droughtly.  This is a near endemic and found outside of Florida only in parts of southern Georgia.
Four-petal St. John's-wort is an evergreen woody shrub that may reach a mature height of about 3 feet.  It is an openly branched species with thin stems and oval blue-green leaves that clasp the branches.  It assumes an irregular aspect with the leaves most confined to the branch tips.
As its common and Latin names suggest, four-petal St. John's-wort produces flowers with four canary-yellow petals.  They are showy and about 1/2 inch wide.  Flowering can occur in most months, but is most common in late spring.  Well-grown specimens may have a dozen or more blooms at any one time.
Four-petal St. John's-wort is one of the better members of this genus for the home landscape.  Although it is naturally found in wet to moist locations, it adapts well to most typical  home landscape conditions, except excessively droughty soils.  In our Pinellas County landscape it has done well in a variety of settings, but seems to prefer partial shade when planted in soils that often dry out.  It has spread in parts of our landscape by seed, but never aggressively.
This species is only occasionally offered for sale by nurseries affiliated with FANN, the Florida Assocation of Native Nurseries.  If you locate a source, use this plant in mixed plantings in the back half of the bed and cluster 3-5 plants together.  Once it is established, it should be an easy plant to maintain.

8 comments:

  1. here in north central FL...St John's Wort seems to just grow wild...i see it popping up here and there on our property...

    thanks for all your info! on native plants...

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  2. Hi, Thanks for your Blog! I was just wondering if this version of St. John's Wort carries the same medicinal properties as the ones refered to in other parts of the country?

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  3. The non-native Hypericum perforatum is the species that has the most natural compounds used for medicinal purposes. To the best of my knowledge, our native species are quite low in these compounds and are not likely candidates for such uses.

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  4. Do you have any recommendations for germination of this species? I have some seed recently collected. Thanks.

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    1. I have not grown it purposely in the past as it seeds and produces seedlings for me without any extra effort. It seemingly does not need any type of stratification. I would sow seed just below the surface and simply keep it watered.

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  5. I have two small plants that just popped up in my yard this spring! But they are smack dab in the middle of an open area...can I dig up and move them or are they not happy about transplanting?

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    1. St John’s County, southern St Augustine area (if that is needed)

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    2. They are generally easy to transplant. Just keep them watered well

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