Blue Ridge St. John's Wort

Close-up of a Hypericum blooming along the Appalachian Trail. It's one of the five-petaled species, which narrows it down to still a list of six possible species in my field guide. Trying to key it out with the help of someone more versed in using botanical manuals, we believe it might actually be a species not even shown in my field guide - Hypericum mitchellianum (Blue Ridge St. Johnswort). It is reported to grow on the Appalachian Balds and has been collected from this location for herbarium collections. This plant looked a bit different from others along the trail as the stamens all seemed to have a black dot, and as you can see on the buds here the sepals have black streaks, arguing in favor of this being Hypericum mitchellianum. Blue Ridge St. Johnswort is a rare plant species endemic to the Southern Appalachians but not growing anywhere else in the world and considered vulnerable globally. Another one endemic to this area and listed as endangered that is known to grow on the Balds is Hypericum graveolens (Mountain St. Johnswort) which is also currently in bloom on Mount Mitchell. Many of the ones blooming along the Appalachian Trail looked like that, and the two species are known to hybridize, so it is possible there were a few hybrids growing along the trail as well. With so many different species of St. Johnswort in the area, it is often hard to tell which one is which.