Hypericum podocarpoides (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0-45-1-2 m tall, with branches spreading or pendulous. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete; internodes 5-15 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark grey-brown. Leaves sessile or with very short flat petiole; lamina (20-)25-80 x 4-20 mm, linear to narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong-lanceolate (broader towards the inflorescence), sharply acute to subacuminate, margin plane to recurved, sometimes reddish, subincrassate, base auriculate-truncate or subcordate to rounded, discolorous, densely glaucous beneath, coriaceous; venation: 2-3 pairs main laterals with numerous midrib branches distally, without visible tertiary reticulum; laminar glands mostly undulating lines and streaks (crossing the veins) with some dots; ventral glands sparse or absent. Inflorescence 5-13(-20)-flowered, from 1-2(3) nodes, subcorymbiform to broadly pyramidal, or sometimes pseudo-umbellate owing to the very short apical internode, occasionally with subsidiary branches below; pedicels 4-25 mm long; bracts oblong or ovate to lanceolate, those on main stem foliar and usually in a pseudo-whorl, others reduced, deciduous. Flowers (25-)35-50 mm in diam., stellate; buds ovoid, acute. Sepals 8-14 x 3-6 mm, free, imbricate, subequal, spreading in bud and fruit, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, acute to subacute, with margin entire or slightly irregular to eroded-denticulate towards apex; midrib of outer 1-3 visible, veins not prominent; laminar glands numerous, linear or interrupted. Petals bright yellow, not tinged red, spreading, 13-28 x 8-12 mm, 1.6-2 x sepals, ± narrowly obovate, with apiculus very acute to almost absent, lateral; margin entire, eglandular. Stamen fascicles each with c. 30 stamens, longest 8-15 mm long, 0.5-0.65 x petals; anthers bright yellow. Ovary 4.5-6 x 2.5-4 mm, narrowly to rather broadly ellipsoid; styles 3.5-6.5 mm long, 1-1.2 x ovary, free, suberect to divergent, outcurved near apex; stigmas capitate. Capsule 8-13 x 7-10 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid. Seeds dark reddish-brown, 0-9-1 mm long, narrowly cylindric, very narrowly carinate, very shallowly linear-reticulate.
On grassy slopes, rock faces and in stony river beds, in dry situations; (570)840- 2100(-2400) m.
Nepal (central, west), India (Kumaun).
H. podocarpoides has been confused with H. cordifolium since Dyer made them synonymous in Fl. Brit. India (Dyer, 1874). They are, however, quite distinct. Although they approach one another in leaf shape, the respective variations do not overlap; and they also differ in leaf thickness, colour and glandularity, and in inflorescence shape, stamen length, ovary size and style length. Whereas H. cordifolium occurs in a restricted area of central Nepal with an isolated locality in the east of that country, H. podocarpoides is found mainly further west (Robson, 1977ft: fig. 1). The area of overlap in central Nepal, however, is more apparent than real, as H. podocarpoides is absent from the immediate region where H. cordifolium occurs, although it is present to the east and south-east of it. There also appears to be a gap in the distribution of H. podocarpoides in the west of Nepal. In addition, H. cordifolium flowers in the spring and H. podocarpoides in the autumn (teste A. Schilling). It therefore seems that, although H. cordifolium and H. podocarpoides are both closely related to H. mysurense and to each other, they have diverged from this common ancestor and subsequently come to occupy overlapping areas without hybridising or introgressing.