A Year in the Valley

I noticed this under the sea buckthorn trees in the shady part of the watermeadow.  It’s clearly a garden escapee as we have Tutsan bushes in the top garden, only we know it as Hypericum.  It’s odd that we didn’t know the common name, but only the Latin one!  Tutsan comes from the French phrase ‘tout saine’ which means all healthy.  However, the berries are poisonous to humans, but not to birds, which are responsible for spreading it into the countryside, where it is commonly found on banks and verges, though it prefers a damp habitat.  It has yellow buttercup-like flowers with five petals framing a big bunch of showy stamens.  The berries turn from orange to black, as in the picture.  It is in the same family as the St. John’s Worts, but although they all have similar flowers, only Tutsan has the black berries.