Finding and Harvesting Saint John's Wort
/Plants have a way of growing where they will be noticed and available to the people who need them.
Saint John’s Wort eases seasonal and situational depression so it is not surprising that sometimes the largest stands of Saint John’s Wort are growing right on the freeway with cars zooming by. Finding Saint Johns’ Wort, Hypericum perforatum in a wild habitat that is clean and away from disturbed areas like roadsides and railways can be time consuming.
Hypericum perforatum is also called Saint John’s Wort, the common name given for the bloom of Hypericum, which blooms on or near St John’s Day or Summer Solstice. Its herbal properties are hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, antiviral, vulnerary, analgesic, and neuro-restorative. Hypericum is long revered to ease depression and inflammation, strengthen the Solar Plexus, and ease liver complaints.
It is used for pain, specifically nerve pain, in an internal or external application, as well as for short term, situational depression. Hypericum strengthens the solar plexus and brings light to a situation, lightening the load. It’s excellent for those with SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, or mild depression or sadness in winter.
Here are a few tips for discovering and harvesting Saint John’s Wort.
The photo above is of a plant growing in a pristine wooded meadow near one of my main forest harvest sites. I sprinkled seed here years ago and have never been without at least a small batch of medicine from my efforts. It is less bushy here than the ones near the highways and byways but the plants are abundant so the accumulative harvest was ample.
The flower buds on this plant are ready to harvest. If possible, harvest just before the buds open; if you wait just before they open you will sometimes see them tipped with an overflow of their medicine, Hypericin. Hypericin is light red to maroon in color and some buds are plump.
This jar is packed with mostly flower buds of Hypericum. Hypericum blooms near the summer solstice, Saint Johns Day, giving the plant its common name Saint John’s Wort. The menstruum used is oil. If this plant is tinctured in alcohol; it turns red within minutes. After a few days in the warmth of the sun, Hypericum oil becomes red as the medicine infuses slowly into the oil. This oil will be used to ease sunburn, nerve pain, and inflammation.
A combination of buds, flowers and some leaf is still good medicine. I always caution those who have rules on using just one part of a plant. There is always a full spectrum of healing available using the matrix of a plant, even if its just energetically. This aspect of the plant is still powerful and should not be dismissed.
You will often find hypericum covered in a small metallic looking beetle called the Klamath Beetle, which was introduced to kill Hypericum and reduce its ability to spread. Hypericum is not available for purchase as plant or seed due to its presence on the invasive species list.
Washington State does not allow retailers to sell the seed or the plant of Hypericum perforatum. If you want to add this medicine to your garden, watch for seed heads and do some guerilla planting in a nearby area that you can revisit in the coming years. Poor soil? Plant Hypericum! What is guerilla planting? It is simply finding where you want to plant the seed, going there and shaking the seed heads wherever you wish. The seeds will land where they will and that keeps them wild.
Here is a flower head going to seed. Be sure to leave a few flowers to go to seed for next years’ harvests!
Ready to start your journey with Saint John’s Wort? Here are my small batch botanicals made with Saint John’s Wort:
