Japanese name: オトギリソウ（弟切草） Scientific name:Hypericum erectum
[Overview]
A perennial 30–80 cm tall, found in mountains and fields.
The stem stands upright with little branching; at first it has 2 ridges, and later becomes cylindrical.
The leaves are simple and opposite, narrowly elliptic to narrowly triangular-ovate, 1.5–5 cm long and 0.7–1.5 cm wide, with bases slightly clasping the stem.
The leaves have black dots and translucent dots.
Cymes at the branch tips bear 5–20 flowers.
The flowers are yellow with 5 petals, 1.5 cm across, with 25–40 yellow stamens.
The petals and calyx have black lines and black dots.
The fruit is an ovoid capsule.
[Uses]
The whole plant is used medicinally.
[Notes]
The Japanese name derives from a Heian-period legend in which a falconer who used this plant as a remedy for hawks' wounds killed his younger brother for revealing the secret, and the blood that spattered then is said to have become the black dots on the leaves and petals.
