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St. Johnswort
Hypericum calycinum
Your local evidence lens
Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge
A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.
1. Fire evidence and conditions
- Fire evidence
- Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
- Fire-performance conditions
- 1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
- Fire ecology context
- No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
- Placement evidence
- 3 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
- Evidence regions
- California; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; New Zealand; Ohio / Midwest; Southern California; Tennessee; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic
- Maintenance
- No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
Typed publication scope: 7 scopes across 5 cited fire sources
- Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interface: A Compilation of Fire Performance Ratings of Residential Landscape Plants · Official scoped edition
- Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) · Official scoped edition
- Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- Landscaping Guidelines to Protect Your Home from Wildfire (SP685) · Official scoped edition
- Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
2. Why this plant is relevant here
- State distribution
- Documented in CA, OH, OR, TN, WA.
- Native range
- No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
- Introduced / established
- 1 sourced range or established record; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
- USDA hardiness
- Documented minimum 2b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
- Legal-list status
- Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
- Seed-list status
- Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
- Reported invasive here
- No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
- Broader regional context
- Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
- Federal context
- Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
- Form
- groundcover
- USDA hardiness
- Minimum 2b; upper limit not documented
- Mature height
- ~0.8 ft
- Water need
- moderate
- Grows in
- CA, OH, OR, TN, WA
- Rated in
- California; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; New Zealand; Ohio / Midwest +3
- Uses
- ground-cover
- Family
- Hypericaceae
- Evidence
- 8 cited sources
Plant hardiness evidence
-
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics
Minimum 2b · no upper limit documented
Conditions in the fire evidence
Where its sources say to plant it
- Fire-Retardant Plants for Brush Fire Prevention in Hillsi…: Category 4
- Defensible Space Landscaping in the Urban/Wildland Interf…: Chapter 4, Landscape Vegetation Database
- Firewise Landscaping Plants: Ground Covers; Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials
The evidence
Recommends (6)
-
Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921)
“L flammability”
Used in erosion control; poisonous foliage; disease sensitive.
-
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300)
“L flammability”
Used in erosion control. Poisonous.
-
Low Flammability Plants directory
“Low/moderate flammability”
Low/moderate flammability classification.
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Landscaping Guidelines to Protect Your Home from Wildfire (SP685)
“listed Firewise plant”
-
Fire-Retardant Plants for Brush Fire Prevention in Hillside Residential Areas
“CATEGORY 4 — LEAST FIRE RETARDANCE Plants with medium leaf moisture content capacity (60-70%)”
Hypericum calycinum (Aaron's Beard) is one of 30 low-growing plants in the source's recommended Table 1. The category reflects leaf moisture capacity under normal garden conditions at the Arboretum.
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Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions)
“relatively resistant to fire”
Listed as Hypericum calycinum (St Johnswort); Hypericum calycinum (St Johnswort). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Used in erosion control. Poisonous
Mid-scale / conditional (2)
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“Conflicting information on fire performance.”
1997 Landscape Vegetation Database row: Hypericum calycinum (St. Johnswort). Preserved UCFPL transcription marker: C19.
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Living More Safely in the Chaparral-Urban Interface
“Medium — Aaron’s beard”
Table 5 rates this low-growing southern California landscape entry by fuel volume, inherent plant flammability, and ease of fire spread.