Hypericum perforatum is a native British upright perennial, reaching a height of up to 90 cm. It grows throughout Britain and Europe and well into Asia and prefers open, sunny situations and dry calcareous soils. The smooth stem branches in its upper part, bearing opposite, sessile, oblong leaves which exhibit numerous translucent oil glands, as well as a few dark ones on the underside. The bright yellow five-petaled flowers, which are borne in a terminal corymb, have over fifty stamens, fused in the lower part into three bundles. The long lanceolate petals and shorter sepals are marked with dark dots. The fruit is a capsule which opens by three valves. A herbaceous perennial growing freely wild to a height of 1 to 3 feet in uncultivated ground, woods, hedges, roadsides, and meadows; short, decumbent, barren shoots and erect stems branching in upper part, glabrous; leaves pale green, sessile, oblong, with pellucid dots or oil glands which may be seen on holding leaf to light. Flowers bright cheery yellow in terminal corymb. Calyx and corolla marked with black dots and lines; sepals and petals five in number; ovary pear-shaped with three long styles.