Many of the Hypericum genus are tall plants with striking flowers but this one is a usually a prostrate plant trailing flat along the ground. The small (8 to 10 mm) yellow flowers only open in full sun so it can be easily missed. The petals are hardly longer than sepals. The stems branch and root at the base.

See ID Aids below.

This is the only procumbent Hypericum recorded in VC55, but it can be at least partly upright.  Stems have 2 lines; sepals are unequal; petals less than twice as long as sepals.  Black glands on leaves; a few on petals and sepals

A photo of the plant in its habitat 

Usually on acid soil and favouring dry sandy or rocky places.

Perennial.

Widespread and fairly frequent from most of Britain except the far north of Scotland and a small area around The Wash.

Nearly scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 22 of the 617 tetrads.

In the VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native; now scarce.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but does not meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)