It sounds very Renaissance Fair, doesn’t it?  Anything with the word “wort” in it does, I think.

I had to look up the word, in fact, for this post, hoping it had a bizarre, archaic meaning, but really it only means herbaceous (non-woody) plant.  Unless you are talking ale, then it means the liquid produced from mashing grains.

St. John’s Wort, in particular, is a medicinal herb.  It doubles as a dyer’s plant, producing a yellow or gold color.  Lots of studies have been conducted to see if it works as a treatment for depression, but the results are often inconclusive and sometimes contradictory.  It’s been used traditionally for a slew of other complaints as well, something I find to be the case for most medicinal herbs.  What this means I hesitate to speculate, but it seems that once a use is found for a plant, it gets tried for many ailments.

If you want to read more about this plant, here’s a general overview.

It grew easily in my garden from seed, but it hasn’t flowered yet.  Hopefully it will and I can get some photos of the yellow blooms.

If you have experience of this plant, let’s hear it!