Hypericum afrum Lam.

Perennial herb (l-)2 m tall, erect, suffrutescent at base, branched all up stem, with branches short, strict to ascending, glabrous. Stems vinous red, narrowly 2-lined but otherwise terete, not ancipitous, internodes exceeding leaves; cortex exfoliating in sheets. Leaves sessile; lamina 10-15(-20) x 3-5(-11) mm, narrowly oblong to elliptic-oblong or lower often obovate to oblanceolate, paler beneath, papyraceous, thinly glaucous, plane, spreading to deflexed; apex rounded, margin recurved and undulate, base cuneate to cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 3(4) pairs of main laterals ascending from lower 0.25-0.5 of midrib, midrib branched above, tertiary reticulation obscure; laminar glands pale, dense, unequal, relatively small, not prominent; intramarginal glands black, dense. Inflorescence c. 60-flowered from 3-4 nodes with branches from up to 2 nodes below, the whole globose and rather congested to broadly pyramidal and rather lax, sometimes with additional flowering branches from further down stem; pedicels 3-4 mm; bracteoles reduced, linear-lanceolate, sparsely black-glandular-ciliate. Flowers 12-15 mm in diam.; buds ovoid-ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 3-3.5 x 0.7-1 mm, subequal, slightly basally connate, narrowly ovate-oblong to linear-lanceolate, acute, glandular-denticulate to -ciliate; veins 5, not branching or 3, branching; laminar glands pale, shortly linear to striiform or rarely punctiform; marginal glands black, small, rather sparse. Petals golden? yellow, tinged red dorsally, 7-8 x 3-3.5 mm, c. 2.3 x sepals, narrowly elliptic to oblong-elliptic, rounded, with apiculus amber- or black-glandular; laminar glands pale, linear to distally punctiform; inframarginal glands black, sparse, on inner margin only. Stamens c. 35-40, longest c. 5.5-6.5 mm, c. 0.8 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary c. 2 x 1 mm, narrowly ovoid-pyramidal; styles c. 3 mm, 1.5 x ovary, erect-outcurved. Capsule 5-6 x 3-4 mm, ovoid-pyramidal to ovoid, exceeding sepals, usually enclosed by petals twisted together. Seeds straw-coloured, c. 0.7 mm long; testa finely linear-foveolate.