Hypericum foliosum (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0-5-1 m tall (or taller?), bushy (?) with branches erect or ± spreading. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon 2-lined, eventually terete; internodes 1- 3 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark fissuring. Leaves sessile or subsessile, sometimes amplexicaul; lamina 35-60 x 10-32 mm, ± narrowly ovate to triangular-lanceolate, obtuse (or rarely acute) to rounded, margin plane, base rounded or more rarely cordate, slightly paler beneath, not glaucous, papyraceous; venation: 4-5 pairs ascending main lateral veins, with tertiary reticulum prominent on both sides; laminar glands small; intramarginal glands dense. Inflorescence 1-9-flowered, from 1-2 nodes with condensed internode, subcorymbiform to pseudo-umbellate with branches ± narrowly ascending, without accessory flowers, sometimes with 1-3- flowered branches from node below; pedicels 7-12 mm long; bracts reduced, linear-lanceolate to linear-subulate. Flowers (20-)25-30(-35) mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid-subglobose, rounded. Sepals (2-)3-6(-7) x 1.5- 2.5(-4) mm, imbricate, unequal to subequal, spreading to subdeflexed and enlarging after anthesis, deflexed and persistent in fruit, triangular-lanceolate or lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, acute to obtuse, 5-7-veined from base with veins sometimes ± branched and reticulate; laminar glands linear and punctiform; intramarginal glands dense. Petals golden yellow, not red-tinged, spreading, (10-)12-18 x 5-8 mm, 3-4 x sepals, oblan- ceolate, with apiculus rounded or obsolete. Stamen fascicles each with 20-30 stamens, longest 12-18 mm, equalling or slightly exceeding petals. Ovary 4-5(-6) x 3-4.5(-5) mm, broadly ovoid to subglobose, acute to obtuse; styles 5-10 mm long, 1.5-2.5 x ovary, erect to suberect, narrowly divergent near apex, slender; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule 8-13 x 7-10 mm, ± broadly cylindric-ellipsoid, acute to obtuse, chartaceous, somewhat fleshy at first, soon drying, tardily and sometimes incompletely dehiscent. Seeds yellowish-brown, 1.2-1.5 mm long, unilaterally winged with terminal winged appendages.
In damp shaded placed in the mountains, 220-800 m.
Azores (all islands).
H. foliosum is the most primitive species in the section, related to the W. African form of H. roeperianum. It differs from H. grandifolium in its more condensed inflorescence with smaller flowers, usually shorter styles and thinner capsule.