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Western St. John's-wort
Hypericum scouleri Hook.
Synonyms: H. formosum
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Family: Clusiaceae,
St. John's Wort
Genus: Hypericum
Description
General: perennial with rather widespread slender stolons
and rhizomes, the erect stems usually many, 10-80 cm
tall, simple to freely branched.
 Leaves: opposite, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic or
obovate or almost round, 1-3 cm long, usually purplish-
black dotted, especially along the edges, the bases
somewhat clasping.
 Flowers: few in open clusters with leafy bracts. Sepals
triangular to ovate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, purplish-black
dotted, usually blunt or rounded, sometimes small-toothed.
The 5 petals pale to bright yellow, about twice the length of
the sepals, conspicuously purplish-black dotted along the
edges, or blackish-small-toothed. Stamens 75-100, joined
in 3-5 distinct groups. Styles slender, 3-5 mm long.
Flowering time: June-September.
 Fruits: capsules, 6-9 mm long, 3-celled. Seeds about
0.8 mm long, yellow to brownish, finely net-veined but
apparently shallowly lined lengthwise.
Distribution
Mostly in moist places from the foothills to well up in the
mountains, in w. and c. parts of MT. Also from B.C. to
Baja Calif., and to WY and c. Mexico.
 Edible and Medicinal plant, see below.
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(click on image for full size)
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ssp. nortoniae:
(click on images for full size)
Edible Uses:
The plant has been eaten fresh, dried or ground into flour and used like acorn meal.
Medicinal Uses:
Western St. John's-wort was used medicinally mostly by the Shoshoni Indians. They used the plant in several ways as a poultice for sores, swellings, wounds and cuts.
The dried root was used for toothache.
An infusion of tops was taken over a long period of time for venereal disease. The Paiute tribe used the flowers for perfume.
The Shoshoni and Paiute made a decoction of the plant used as a bath for aching feet.
Varieties:
ssp. nortoniae (M.E. Jones) J. Gillett:
A more slender, mostly simple-stemmed plant up to about 20 cm tall, often with relatively broader leaves, the sub-alpine ecotype.
ssp. scouleri Hook.:
Plants mostly over 20 cm tall and frequently branched, occurring from the lowlands to moderate altitudes in the mountains. |
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