Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Common St. John's-wort - Hypericum perforatum   L.
Members of Hypericaceae:
Members of Hypericum with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Theales » Family Hypericaceae
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AuthorL.
DistributionThroughout most of the state, except most of Sandhills and southern Coastal Plain.

Native of Europe and western Asia; in N.A. throughout southern Canada and south to GA, TX, and CA.
AbundanceFairly common to locally common in the Mountains and northern Piedmont, slightly less numerous in the southern Piedmont and much of the central and northern Coastal Plain. Scarce in the southeastern part of the state.
HabitatRoadsides, fields, meadows, pastures, woodland borders, disturbed areas, alluvial situations, waste ground, etc.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting June-September.
IdentificationKlamath Weed is so-called because it is a major invasive alien in the Klamath OR/CA region and elsewhere west of the Mississippi. Here in NC, it is not such a bad actor. The stem is herbaceous, mostly 1-2 feet tall (potentially to 3 feet), with opposite elliptical or oblanceolate leaves. The leaf margins have small black glandular dots, and stems have them in lines. The common native H. punctatum is similar, but it has larger leaves (mostly 1-2 inches long) along the stem, and the leaves along branches are about the same size; the alien species has stem leaves less than 1 inch long and the ones on lateral branches much smaller. Also, this alien has dots on leaves mostly clear/translucent, whereas the native has leaves heavily black dotted.
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Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
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B.A. SorrieRoadside, Skyline Drive, VA, Aug 2014. Photo_non_NCPhoto_non_NC
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