Creeping St. John's Wort, Aaron's Beard                hi-PER-i-kum kal-e-SI-num

• Semi-evergreen, stoloniferous, ground cover, with procumbent or ascending stems, 12-18 inches (30-45 cm) high.  Leaves opposite, simple, ovate-oblong, 5-10 cm long.  Flowers yellow, 7.5 cm wide, blooms in early summer, occasionally throughout the summer.
• Sun to shade, some drought tolerance, invasive, "tough", often seen around parking lots and commercial buildings.  In the Northwest it may suffer from Hypericum Rust.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 6     Native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor.  This is not the Hypericum species considered by some to have therapeutic properties, that is the herb, St. John's Wort, Hypericum perforatum.
• Hypericum: Greek, hyper, above, and eikon, a picture, it was hung above pictures to ward off evil spirits.    calycinum: with a conspicuous calyx.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: southeast Ag. & Life Sciences, many locations on campus.