This Mediterranean introduction colonises walls and rocky places with great ease. The spectacular flowers with exserted stamens are a characteristic but the defining test comes from crushing the leaves and smelling the sap. The smell is more powerful to some than others but it is reminiscent of an unclean animal house and is said to smell of Goats. It can be a small plant but after a few years it can be the size of a small shrub even when growing out of a wall.

Hypericum hircinum is dotted about in England and Wales with a few high concentrations of plants including the area where this one was found. There is little in Ireland and Scotland.

Great Orme, North Wales, 6th July 2006

Added on 28th September 2006, updated 16th April 2009, updated 7th April 2010, updated 28th July 2013