Hypericum olympicum (Nomenclature)
Shrub or suffrutex 0.1–0.55 m tall, erect to decumbent or rarely prostrate, with stems few to numerous, caespitose, occasionally rooting, unbranched below inflorescence or with intermediate branches. Stem internodes 5–15 mm long, longer to shorter than leaves. Leaves not auriculate or amplexicaul, spreading to erect, ± glaucous, 5–31(–38) × 2–12 mm, elliptic or more rarely lanceolate-elliptic to narrowly oblong-elliptic or linear or sometimes obovate, concolorous, thinly coriaceous; apex acute to subacute or (when narrow) rounded-obtuse, margin plane, base rounded (uppermost) to usually cuneate; venation: 0–3 pairs of obscure lateral veins from lower third of midrib; unbranched or at least without visible tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale, dense, not prominent; intramarginal glands black, small, irregular or few. Inflorescence 1–5(–9)-flowered, from 1–3 nodes, rarely with branch(es) from one lower node, the whole subcorymbiform to subcylindric; pedicels 2–4 mm, rather stout; bracts reduced-foliar, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, without black glands; bracteoles similar but smaller. Flowers 30–65 mm in diam.; buds ovoid-pyramidal, rounded. Sepals unequal or subequal, broadly imbricate, paler than leaves, 6–16 × 3–12 mm, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic to lanceolate, acuminate to acute or rarely apiculate, base rounded and sometimes shortly unguiculate to broadly cuneate, entire; veins 9–15, branching and anastomosing; laminar glands pale, linear to distally striiform, and sometimes few (rarely numerous – ‘var. coronense’) black, punctiform; marginal glands absent or rarely 1(–2), black, apical. Petals golden or occasionally pale yellow, sometimes tinged or lined red, 15–30 × 8–12 mm, 2–2.5 × sepals, oblong-oblanceolate, rounded, apiculus short, acute to obtuse; laminar glands pale, linear; marginal glands absent or black, 1–c. 7, distal. Stamens c. 65–125, longest 14–25 mm, c. 0.9 × petals. Ovary c. 3 × 2.5 mm, broadly ovoid; styles 18–23 mm, c. 6–8 × ovary. Capsule 5–10 × 4–8 mm, shorter than sepals, ± broadly ovoid to globose. Seeds dark brown, c. 1.8 mm; testa shallowly foveolate-scalariform.
2n = 18 (Contandriopoulos & Lanzalavi, 1968; Reynaud, 1973, 1980; van Loon & de Jong, 1978; van Loon & van Setten, 1982); n = 9 (Nielsen, 1924; Sugiura, 1939, 1944). Nielsen’s and Sugiura’s material was cultivated and therefore almost certainly H. olympicum, not, as they reported, H. polyphyllum.
Sandy, stony and sometimes grassy places or among rocks in open ground or in Pinus woodland; 0–2000 m.
Southeastern Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece (excluding Crete and western Aegean islands), northwestern Turkey.
Hypericum olympicum is a variable species, but the variation, though partly geographical, is more or less continuous. In order to make this variation comprehensible, the species was divided into five formae, which remain distinct in cultivation (Robson, 1980). Forma macrocalyx has subsequently proved to be part of the continuous variation in 3. H. polyphyllum, but the others belong to H. olympicum proper. Of these, forma olympicum occurs throughout the range of the species except in southern Greece and at higher altitudes further north, where it is replaced by forma minus, whereas formae uniflorum and tenuifolium are confined to extreme northern Greece and adjacent areas of, respectively, Bulgaria and Macedonia.