Aaron's-beard

Hypericum calycinum
Bauer's Illustration from Sibthorp's Flora Graeca
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Malpighiales Family: Clusiaceae 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 (Clusiaceae). 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.

Notes

1. ^ Linnaeus, C. von (1767), Mantissa Plantarum 1: 106 [tax. nov.] Type: "Habitat in America septentrionali?"

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

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