Hypericum revolutum (Bekele-Tesemma, 2007)

← Hypericum quartinianum

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

Hypericum roeperianum →

Hypericum revolutum (H. lanceolatum) Hypericaceae Indigenous

Common names

• English: Curry bush, Giant St. John’s wort
• Agewgna: Awidi
• Amargna: Amija
• Oromugna: Edera, Garamba, Hendi, Ule foni, Muka foni, Gorgora

Ecology

A tall shrub of open forest, forest margins and montane woodland and grassland often with Erica arborea and/or Hagenia abyssinica in Moist and Wet Dega and Wurch agroclimatic zones in almost all regions, 2200–3700 m.

Uses

Firewood, timber (local construction), medicine (powdered dry leaves and stems, oily extracts), bee forage, soil conservation.

Description

A shrub or tree which can reach 10 m, usually smaller.

• BARK: Red-brown and scaly. Young stems are 4-angled.
• LEAVES: Small and narrow to 4 cm long, in opposite pairs crowded along stems, green or bluegreen, the tip pointed and base clasping the stem, the leaf edges sometimes rolled under (“revolutum”).
• FLOWERS: Single at stem tips, bright yellow to 5 cm across, 5 petals to 3 cm long around a central mass of stamens, sepals edged with black dots.
• FRUIT: A ellipsoid, five-part capsule, 11 – 15 mm long, red-brown, 1 cm across, 5 parts containing tiny seeds.

Propagation

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

Seed

• Treatment: Often natural, not cultivated.

Remarks

Used in gardens elsewhere. The English name, curry bush, comes from its distinctive smell.