Evening sunlight catching Hypericum androsaemum

We are setting off tomorrow for Cumbria, eventually crossing to France on Wednesday. Recent weeks have been full on one way and another, I’m sorry for my part time participation and hope to catch up on bf in the next week or two. Today’s effort is my favourite plant to blip although not recently, no doubt considered invasive, we don’t mind it too much, such a pretty plant and blippable throughout the year.


Hypericum androsaemum
Tutsan comes from the French toute-sain meaning all heal due to its medicinal uses. This berry producing shrub is common in the Mediterranean basin where it has been traditionally used as diuretic and hepatoprotective herb. In the Portuguese ethno-medicine, the plant is locally known as ‘Hipericão do Gerês’ and it used as diuretic, hepato protective and antidepressant [2]. In Spain, the infusion of the flowering aerial parts is used as an antidepressive and anxiolitic [3]. In England, tutsan ointment is used to dress cuts and wounds. The berries turn from white/green, to red, to black. According to Shepherd (2004) all parts of the plant, particularly the fruit, are toxic due to the presence of hypericin, causing nausea and diarrhoea in humans. On the other hand, Tutsan berries contain numerous organic biologically active compounds.[4]