Hypericum roeperianum (Bekele-Tesemma, 2007)

← Hypericum revolutum

Bekele-Tesemma, Useful trees and shrubs for Ethiopia, 2007 Hypericum roeperianum (Bekele-Tesemma, 2007)

Hyphaene thebaica →

Hypericum roeperianum Hypericaceae Indigenous

Common names

• English: Large-leaved St. John’s wort
• Amargna: Amija

Ecology

Found in dry evergreen forest margins, bushland, grassland and beside streams and rivers with bamboo or in high-altitude woodlands of Dry, Moist and Wet Dega, Frost and Alpine-frost agroclimatic zones of Tigray, Gonder, Gojam, Welo and Shoa, 3,000–3,800 m.

Uses

Firewood, charcoal, bee forage.

Description

A thickly branched shrub or small tree to 3–5 m.

• LEAVES: Without stalks, long oval, in opposite pairs, widely spaced along the stem, 2–8 cm long, dull green, paler below, tip pointed. Midrib clear below, veins from the leaf base curve right to the tip. Veins below divide leaving gland dots outlined — seen against the sky.
• FLOWERS: Bright orange-yellow in stalked groups, few to many, beside leaves or terminal, each 5 cm across.
• FRUIT: Dry capsules as in other Hypericum spp.

Propagation

Seedlings. Hypericum are readily propagated from seed, cuttings, rooted runners for species which provide them, and, in vigorous and quickly spreading kinds by simple division.

Management

Coppicing, lopping. Lopping