Hypericum hypericoides (L.) Crantz

St. Andrew's Cross

Shrub

Perennial

Vascular

St. Andrew's Cross is a native perennial sub-shrub in the St John’s Wort family (Hypericaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. It occurs in dry to moist woodlands, along fence rows, on roadsides, and in thickets. It is a woody perennial with a tap root. The stems are 1-3 feet in height, erect to decumbent, branched, 2-winged, with papery reddish-brown bark. Leaves are opposite, sessile, oblanceolate to elliptic or linear in outline, entire, and deciduous or evergreen. There are often fascicles of smaller leaves in the axils. Flowers are produced in 1-3 flowered inflorescences from the axils of the leaves near the apex of the stems. Each flower has 4 un-equal sepals enclosing it, the outer two sepals large and ovate, the inner smaller and lanceolate. Each flower has 4 bright yellow petals in the shape of an “X”. The fruit is a capsule enclosed within the sepals. St. Andrew’s Cross plants is occasionally available from nurseries that specialize in native plants. It flowers throughout the summer, and its flowers are visited by native bees. It prefers a sandy, well-draining soil in full to partial sun, and can be used as a low growing border or in mixed plantings.—A. Diamond.

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Native FAC (NWPL)

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