Hypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton Sterns & Poggenb.

Pineweed, orange grass

Some types of St. John’s wort

	Hypericum canadense	Hypericum ellipticum	Hypericum mutilum
Common Name	Canadian St. Johns-wort	pale St. John’s-wort	dwarf St. John’s-wort
Plant	These perennials are 1¾–30″ (5–75 cm) in height, with a single or branching stem. Stems are four-angled and slightly winged.	8–20″ (20–50 cm) tall. Stems are hairless, somewhat 4-angled.<	4–18″ (10–45 cm) tall, sometimes up to 2½′ (79 cm), heavily branched, with a shrublike habit. Branches may be 4-angled or smooth, tapering, and sometimes winged.
Leaves	Linear or linear-oblanceolate, that is, straight and narrow or straight and narrow but fatter toward the leaf tips. Leaf tips are rounded. Leaves are sessile, or with a very short petiole, and ⅛–2″ long ⨉ 1/32–⅛″ wide (6–55 ⨉ 0.5–5.5 mm). They are opposite, arranged in a spiral around the stem.	⅜–1½″ (1–4 cm) × ⅛–¾″ (3–20 mm), and elliptical-oblong in shape, generally rounded at leaf tips, and attached directly to the stem (sessile).	Roughly oval in shape, and attached directly to the stem (sessile). They are opposite, unlobed, ½–1½″ (1.3–3.8 cm) long and ¼–¾″ (6.3–19 mm) across.
Flowers	While many species of St. Johns-wort have prodigiously flowered inflorescences, this one has solitary flowers, or small branched cymes wtih a few. Each flower is yellow, with five petals with rounded tips, forming a star, and five linear sepals that are blunt or pointed. There are 15 stamens.	Yellow, in clusters of 1 to a few at stem and branch tips. Each flower is ⅜–½″ (1–1.4 cm) around, with 5 yellow petals and 5 pale green sepals, a fountain of yellow stamens, and three styles fused into one in the center. (Rarely, the number of sepals and petals may be 4 or 6.) There are in excess of 100 stamens. Flowers appear from July to August.	¼″ (6.3 mm) in size, yellow or yellow-orange, with five petals and 5-15 stamens. Beneath the petals of each flower there are somtimes green bracts that are narrower but roughly the same length, one for each petal. Blooms from July to October.
Fruit	Capsules are cone-shaped, red or purplish, and ⅛–¼″ long ⨉ ~1/16″ wide (4–6.5 ⨉ 2–2.5 mm). They contain light brown, cylindrical seeds about ~1/32″ (0.5–0.7 mm) long.	Capsules are ⅛–3/16″ (4–6 mm) × ⅛–3/16″ (3.5–5 mm), ellipsoid, and rounded to a tip.	1/16–⅛″ (2–3.5 mm) in length.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Wet or dry soils in sandy ditches and clearings, road verges, pastures, boggy or peaty areas, gravelly beaches, and occa­sionally in woodlands	At high elevations, in wet meadows and along stream banks.	Sandy forest floodplains, sandy swamps, moist to wed sandy prairies; damp, sandy, acidic areas in general

	Hypericum perforatum	Hypericum punctatum
Common Name	St. John’s wort	spotted St. John’s-wort
Plant	Less than 3′ (91 cm) in height.	5–41″ (13–105 cm) tall, with hairless red or green stems.
Leaves	Oval, about ⅜″ (1.2 cm) long, with smooth edges, occurring in opposing pairs.	Leaves are unlobed, hairless, opposite, oblong to oval elliptic, ¾–2″ (1.9–5.7 cm) long × ¼–½″ (8.3–12 mm) wide. New leaves are spotted with tiny black glands. They are typically widest somewhat past the midpoint. Leaves are usually attached to the stem (sessile).
Flowers	Bright yellow, star-shaped, with five petals and many yellow stamens about the length of the petals. Petals have serrated edges and small black dots on the serrations. Flowers are up to ⅞″ (2.5 cm) across.	Yellow, 5-petaled flowers, densely clustered at stem tips, are ¼–½″ (8–15 mm) around. Sepals are also dotted with rows of black dots. At the center of each flower is a round central ovary, from which 3 styles extend. The tip of each style is often red. Surrounding this are more than 13 stamens. Flowers appear from May to Sep.
Fruit	Capsules ¼–5/16″ (7–8 mm) long, with three valved seeds chambers. Seeds are about 1/32″ (1 mm) in size, black, rough, and lustrous. A single plant produces 15,000 to 34,000 seeds.	Upright, ovoid or teardrop-shaped capsule ⅛–¼″ (4–6.3 mm) long, reddish to deep purple.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Open woods, roadsides and waste places, hedge banks and grassland, and in dry sunny places, usually on calcareous soils.	Black soil or gravel prairies, open wood­lands, savannas, river and lake banks, railroads, and roadsides.

Hypericum gentianoides description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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