Audubon® Native Shrubby St. John's Wort

While the popular claims that St. John’s Wort extracts can cure depression are dubious at best, there is no doubt that Shrubby St. John’s Wort’s flowers in your garden will lift your spirits. The sunny yellow blooms, looking like powder puffs with their fluffy pompoms of threadlike stamens, make summer borders shine. The arrival of the blooms makes for happy bees, too, who eagerly gather the abundant pollen. Bumblebees relish the pollen, bringing it back to their nests to feed their young. A chipper little plant for mixed borders, cottage gardens, and native plantings, Shrubby St. John’s Wort is wonderful anywhere you need a dose of good cheer!

Various species of St. John’s Wort are native all over the world. As a result, this group of plants has had a long partnership with humans, and many myths have arisen regarding these plants. Ancient Greeks hung St. John’s Wort in their windows to ward off ghosts and evil demons. In Europe, one species was associated with John the Baptist, which is where St. John’s Wort got its name. Throughout the ages, the plant has been proposed as a cure for everything from bedwetting to depression to cancer. Science has not been able to substantiate those claims.

Shrubby St. John’s Wort flowers offer no nectar—only pollen—but that doesn’t prevent one pretty, petite butterfly from having an interest in the plant. The gray hairstreak lays its eggs on the foliage. Its little, pale green or pinkish caterpillars are no cause for alarm!