Hypericum androsaemum
Small shrub about 1m high. Leaves ovate and obtuse. Flowers yellow with five petals and long stamens. The only St. John’s wort to produce berries.
Other members of the St John’s wort family.
Common all over NZ in waste ground and forest edges. Seeds probably spread by birds.
Dubious toxicity suggesting skin disease. Reported to have killed cattle in Auckland, but feeding trials produced no signs. May contain hypericin, but reports are contradictory. The plant is not palatable and rarely ingested.
Cattle and humans.
Reported to produce skin ailments (Photosensitivity?).
Evidence of ingestion and skin disease (photosensitivity?)
History and plants in stomach.
Symptomatic
Conner H.E. The Poisonous Plants In New Zealand. 1992. GP Publications Ltd, Wellington
