Great St. Johnswort or Hypericum ascyron is a large yellow showy flower that blooms for about three weeks in July and August. This flower can be found in Connecticut. Its golden yellow petals are an important source of food for many different pollinators. Many Native American communities found interesting uses for this bright and beautiful plant.
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| Photo: Alspdake |
This showy plant in the Mangosteen Family is native to America's Northeast and Midwest. It is characterized as a stout, erect perennial that grows up to six feet. It has large elliptic leaves with no teeth and beautiful golden-yellow flowers. These yellow flowers have five petals and can be identified by their bushy stamens. Ovate green leaves grow on light green stems on the upper third of each plant. Each plant can have up to five flowers that are rather floppy and have about 100 yellow stamens and a light green pistil. The flowers are replaced by a large black capsule that contains several seeds. Great St. Johnswort spreads by rhizomes and grows in large colonies. it prefers sun and moist soil and can be found in marshes, meadows, and fields.
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| Photo: Lumaca |
Great St. Johnswort and St. Johnswort have a long history with healers. The most common use of this plant was to treat Tuberculosis. Many communities made a compound containing the root and gave it to people with symptoms of consumption and to those who have weak lungs. The Menominee used a compound of the root mixed with blackcap raspberry roots to aid kidney trouble. The Meskwaki made a powder from the boiled root of this plant and used it to draw poison from the bite of a water moccasin.
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| Photo: Alspdake |
This plant can cause skin irritation and its foliage is toxic to some animals.
Great St. Johnswort is pollinated by bumblebees.
It is named St. Johnswort because it flowers in the summer and is harvested in mid-summer near the feast of St. John the Baptist.
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