Hypericum ascyron L.

Perennial herb 0.5-1.3(-2) mm tall, erect or sometimes ascending from shortly creeping woody base, with stems single or few, caespitose, unbranched or branched above or almost throughout.  Stems 4-angled when young, becoming 4-lined or occasionally internodes 2-lined below; internodes 2-12 mm, exceeding leaves or shorter than them.  Leaves sessile; lamina (30-)40-97(-120) ´ (4-)7-35(-40) mm ovate-lanceolate or ± narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic to oblong-linear or oblanceolate, rather paler beneath, not glaucous, plane, chartaceous; apex acute to subapiculate or obtuse (or lowermost rarely rounded), margin entire, base cuneate to cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 4-7 pairs of main laterals from lower half of midrib, with subsidiary midrib branches and dense tertiary reticulation not prominent, often obscure; laminar glands pale, dense, unequal dots or short streaks; intramarginal glands pale, small, dense.  Inflorescence 1-c. 35-flowered from 1-5 nodes, the whole subcorymbiform to narrowly pyramidal, sometimes with flowering branches from up to 4 nodes below; pedicels 5-30 mm in fruit; bracts and bracteoles foliar but smaller and often broader, more rarely linear-lanceolate and deciduous.  Flowers 30-70(-80) mm in diam., stellate with petals spreading to reflexed; buds broadly to narrowly ovoid, rounded to subacute.  Sepals (3-)5-15 ´ (1.5-)2-7(-10) mm, free, imbricate, subequal to unequal, the outer ones sometimes foliaceous, erect in bud and fruit, oblong to elliptic or ovate to ovate-lanceolate or  obovate, rounded to obtuse or more rarely subacuminate to acute, entire; veins c. 11-17, branching and uniting distally, midrib scarcely differentiated; laminar glands linear, distally interrupted to striiform; marginal glands spaced, small.  Petals bright (to golden?) yellow, sometimes tinged red in bud, 14-41 ´ 5-20 mm, 2-3 ´ sepals or relatively shorter when sepals foliaceous, obovate or oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, often somewhat spathulate to subunguiculate, strongly curved to almost straight, rounded or obtuse to rarely acute or acuminate, with apiculus short and rounded or absent, margin entire; laminar glands pale, linear to distally striiform, or absent; marginal glands absent. Stamen fascicles 5(4?), distally red, each with c. 30 stamens, longest 9-25 mm, c. 0.4-0.67 ´ petals; anther reddish, gland amber.  Ovary 5(4)-locular, 4-7(-9) ´ 3-5 mm, broadly ovoid to narrowly ovoid-pyramidal or ellipsoid; styles 5(4), 2.5-15 mm, c. 0.5-2 ´ ovary, free or up to 0.8 coherent or connate; stigmas broadly capitate to infundibuliform.  Capsule 9-22(-30) ´ 5-13 mm, broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-pyramidal or rarely narrowly cylindric, 2-3 ´ sepals, obtuse to rounded, with numerous narrow longitudinal vittae.  Seeds dark red-brown, 1-1.5 mm, cylindric, not or slightly curved, deeply carinate or narrowly winged, sometimes with slight terminal expansion; testa densely shallowly linear-reticulate.