Hypericum mysurense (Nomenclature)
Shrub (0-6)1.2-2.4 m tall, bushy, with branches erect to ascending. Stems red, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete; internodes 4-16 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark grey. Leaves sessile 4-ranked; lamina 7-45 x 3-18 mm, narrowly to broadly elliptic or oblong-elliptic, acute, margin plane, base cuneate to reflexed-auriculate, concolorous, not or scarcely glaucous, subcoriaceous to chartaceous, lower ones soon deciduous; venation: 3(4) pairs of main laterals, not or sparsely branched, the midrib pinnately branched, with tertiary reticulum lax and inconspicuous or rarely rather dense; laminar glands linear, between main lateral veins, or ± interrupted by reticulum to form streaks and dots; ventral glands absent. Inflorescence 1-3-flowered or, if flowers more (4-6) , then usually from two close nodes, rarely up to c. 10-flowered from apical node with flowering branches from second node: pedicel 7-20 mm long; bracts foliar but smaller, persistent. Flowers 40-60 mm in diam., stellate; buds broadly to narrowly conical, acute. Sepals 6-10(13) x 3-5 mm, free, imbricate, subequal, erect in bud and fruit, rather broadly to narrowly ovate or ovate-triangular, sharply acute to subacute, margin entire or very rarely subentire, midrib sometimes visible, often then incrassate above, other veins not prominent; laminar glands linear, numerous. Petals rich golden yellow, sometimes tinged red, spreading, 20-33 x 13-22 mm, c. 3 x sepals, narrowly obovate, with apiculus subterminal, acute to rounded; margin entire, eglandular. Stamen fascicles each with c. 40 stamens, longest 10-17 mm long, c. 0-5 x petals; anthers yellow. Ovary (4)5-6 x 3-4 mm, broadly ovoid to ovoid-pyramidal; styles (8)10-13 mm long, c.2-5 x ovary, free or loosely coherent, erect; stigmas small. Capsule (8)10-12(14) x 8-13 mm, broadly ovoid to narrowly ovoid-conic. Seeds dark reddish-brown, 2.2 mm long, cylindric, not winged, slightly carinate, finely linear-foveolate.
In thickets and on wooded and open hillsides, on poor soil; 1050-2100 m.
Sri Lanka, south India north to Konkan (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, western Maharashtra).
H. mysurense shows clinal variation from Sri Lanka and the Palni Hills of Tamil Nadu northward to near Bombay. The southern plants are closer to the African H. revolutum subsp. keniense and H. lanceolatum subsp. angustifolium from Réunion (sect. Campylosporus) in having narrow leaves without or with little tertiary reticulation and with linear laminar glands, and long acute buds and sepals. Towards the northern end of its range, the leaves tend to be relatively broader with marked tertiary venation and dissected laminar glands, and the buds and sepals shorter and subacute. It does not seem possible, however, to recognise infraspecific taxa. The Socotran plants sometimes included in H. mysurense belong to sect. Campylosporus (H. balfourii).