[1] Hypericum virginicum is a small herbaceous plant growing up to 70 cm (28 in) in height.

[4] It flowers in the summer to early fall and grows in bogs, wet meadows, fens, swamps, and along lakeshores.

[5] Alexander Garden first observed this plant in 1754, but following correspondence with Jane Colden realized that she had previously collected and recorded the same species in 1753, one year before his discovery.

[6] As such, Jane Colden held naming rights for what both naturalists thought would be a newly described genus.

Colden generously offered to name it Gardenia in Garden's honor,[7] however this was later rejected by Carl Linnaeus when John Ellis also proposed naming the cape jasmine Gardenia jasminoides in Garden's honor.