| Author | Engelmann & A. Gray | |
| Distribution | Scattered over nearly all of the Coastal Plain, though likely absent in some far eastern counties. A few county records in the eastern Piedmont, west to Caswell and Lee counties.
This is a rather sparsely distributed species of the eastern U.S., ranging north to Long Island, NY, and IL, and south to northern FL and eastern TX. Its range skips over most of the Piedmont and Appalachians, but it does occur in lowlands west of the Appalachians. It is most frequent in the eastern Carolinas, and then again in AR and LA.
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| Abundance | Uncommon to frequent in the Coastal Plain; fairly common in a few places. Very rare in the eastern Coastal Plain (north and south of Albemarle and Pamlico sounds), and in the eastern Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | This is a wetland species of fairly high quality sites, such as pine savannas and wetter parts of pine flatwoods. It may grow in shallow pools, but it is not often found in ditches and other overly disturbed sites, though it certainly can be found in ditches from time to time. A site in Caswell County in the Piedmont is at a sunny upland pool/depression. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from June to September and fruits soon thereafter. | |
| Identification | This is one of three rather similar, quite small and slender herbaceous species of of damp and usually sunny ground in the Coastal Plain (and H. mutilum and H. canadense occur in other provinces as well). This species, typically unbranched or sparsely branched, grows to about 1 foot tall, as do the others. However, this species has very distinct ovate to nearly triangular leaves with clearly cordate-clasping bases, making it relatively easy to identify. The leaves average about 3/4-inch long and are clearly widest at or near the base. As with the others, it has small yellow flowers growing at the tips of the branches. | | Taxonomic Comments | None
| | | Other Common Name(s) | Clasping St. John’s-wort, Clasping-leaved St. John’s-wort | | | State Rank | S3S4 | | | Global Rank | G4 | | | State Status | | | | US Status | | | | USACE-agcp | FACW link | | USACE-emp | OBL link | |
