There is no reason to be depressed when St. John’s wort is around.

Though physicians and herbalists will disagree as to the oft-stated benefits of treating depression with this plant, I prefer to avoid the debate. The conflict will surely make me sad. I would rather keep my spirits high with this herb.

My spirits wouldn’t be the only thing elevated either. St. John’s wort, also appropriately called “devil’s chaser” and “God’s wonder plant,” is reputed to raise witches high in the sky. This plant is said to be “obnoxious to evil spirits,” and its odor (the smell of its crushed leaves is reminiscent of ambergris or pine resin) will cause said spirits to “fly off.” Good riddance, I say, to those forces of darkness.

Tradition advised the placing of this herb on doorways on June 24, St. John’s Day (the earliest flowering time for this plant) to repel those wardens of wickedness. From this custom came this herb’s scientific name, Hypericum perforatum. Hypercium means “above pictures” and refers to placing St. John’s wort over your door or above a picture of a religious icon or shrine. Perforatum refers to the translucent oil glands in its leaves, which resemble holes or black dots, making the leaves look perforated when held up to the sun. More on that later . . . .

The plant’s common name, of course, refers to St. John the Baptist, who was called a “bright and shining light” by Christ. The same could be said of St. John’s wort, whose bright yellow five-petaled flowers and solstice blooming gave rise to another name, “sol terrestrius,” or terrestrial sun. Herbalist Culpepper also insisted that St. John’s wort was “under the dominion of the sun.”

The fate of St. John, however, was not sunny. He was beheaded on August 29 at the request of Salome, daughter of Herod. Like the saint for which it is named, around that time each year, this herb will lose its flowers and appear beheaded itself. The aforementioned black holes or dots become red spots when the leaves begin their decomposition process and can be seen as drops of blood spilt from the dying flower, imitating the death of its patron saint.

Others, however, don’t see this plant as saintly. Farmers find it to be a bane to them and especially to their livestock since it can not only spread rapidly through fields and pasturage, but is poisonous to farm animals. Additionally, St. John’s wort contains a compound that can cause photosensitivity and skin burns to people and animals after exposure to sunlight.

On the other hand, medicinal uses abound. One remedy concluded that “The leaves, flowers and seeds stamped, and put into a glass with oyle Olive, and set in hot Sunne, for certaine weekes together, and then strained from those herbs, and the like quantatie of new put in and sunned in like manner, doth make an oyle of the colour of blood, which is a most precious remedy for deepe wounds, and those that are through the body, for sinues that are pricket or any wound made with a venomed weapon.”

The Irish call this plant “Touch-and-heal,” while the French nomenclature is “toute-sainte,” or all wholesome.

So although the farmers who have to deal with it in their fields may have no reverence for this pious plant, others who look at its properties seem universally to have positive things to say about it. It might just be the only “wort” that you would be happy to have — no depression suppression needed.

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown.