Most people are familiar with Common St. Johnswort, Hypericum perforatum as a “natural antidepressant”. That plant is a smallish perennial forb.

There are a lot of hypericum species, and we’ve been collecting many of them. Here’s a nice shrub, Hypericum prolificum, Shrubby St. Johnswort. It makes a very nice full shrub and is in flower right now.


The flower is larger and gaudier than most other hypericums. Lots of anthers!


Bev likes bumblebees that stuff pollen into their leg pouches.

One particular bumblebee species seems very taken by these flowers. The bumblebee is perhaps half the size of the usual bumblebees I see.


I’ve been trying the Discover Life website for putting in queried descriptions. I’ve got her down as having a black face, a dark spot (not a band) on the top of the thorax, a solid abdomen with sparse hairs, and a light thorax color (as opposed to white).

Look at the neat orange pollen in her bags!


Depending on what I change or delete as a character, Discover Life comes up most often with Bombus citrinus (aka B. laboriosus ), however it also offers Bombus perplexus as a possibility if I relax some of the descriptions.