Hypericum conjungens (Nomenclature)
Shrub or subshrub c. 0.3-2 m tall, slender, erect, with branches strict, glabrous. Stems orange to vinous red, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon 2-lined, eventually terete, internodes mostly equalling or exceeding leaves; cortex exfoliating in sheets; bark smooth, finely striate. Leaves sessile or sometimes lower ones very shortly petiolate; lamina 10-30 x (5-)7-20(-22) mm, oblong to elliptic-oblong or rarely obovate, paler beneath, chartaceous, not glaucous, spreading; apex rounded to retuse, margin undulate, base rounded to cordate-amplexicaul; venation: (2)3 pairs of laterals curved-ascending from lower 0.2-0.25 of midrib, tertiary reticulation well developed, dense; laminar glands pale, dense, unequal, not prominent; intramarginal glands black, dense. Inflorescence c. 5-20-flowered, from 1-2 nodes, congested, curved-corymbiform, with branches from up to 3 nodes below; pedicels 1-3 mm; bracteoles foliar or usually reduced, narrowly oblong to narrowly triangular- lanceolate, with dense marginal to inframarginal black glands. Flowers c. 15-20 mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid, subacute. Sepals 5- 8 x 1-2 mm, subequal, free, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, acute, entire to subentire; veins 5, sometimes branching; laminar glands pale, linear, distally interrupted; marginal to inframarginal glands black, dense. Petals primrose yellow, tinged and sometimes veined red dorsally, 10-12 x 2-2.5 mm, 1.5-2 x sepals, oblong, rounded, with apiculus obsolete, subapical; laminar glands pale, linear to dorsally striiform or subpunctiform, occasionally black, subapical, punctiform; marginal glands black, not or slightly prominent. Stamens c. 80, longest 7-8 mm, 0.7-0.8 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 2.5-3 x 1.5-2 mm, ovoid-pyramidal; styles 2.5-3.5 mm, (1-)1.2 x ovary, spreading-incurved. Capsule 6-7 x 3-3.5 mm, ovoid-pyramidal, shorter than sepals, surrounded by erect, individually twisted petals. Seeds dark brown, 0.7-1 mm long; testa scalariform-reticulate.
Upland grasslands, grassy valleys and forest margins; 1800-2910 m.
Zaire (Shaba), Tanzania (Southern Highlands: Mbeya and Njombe districts), Malawi (North: Nyika), Zambia (Eastern: Nyika).
H. conjungens is intermediate not only between H. kiboense and H. aethiopicum (the origin of the specific epithet), but also between H. abilianum and H. kiboense. Like the other species in this group, it is thus clearly a relict of considerable antiquity; although the morphological differences between species are not great, the geographical distances between them are. H. conjungens differs from H. abilianum mainly in leaf shape and internode length, whilst the shrubbier habit and more congested inflorescence (inter alia) distinguish it from H. aethiopicum. It is usually distinguished from H. kiboense by its longer, sessile leaves and slender, strict habit; but the population of that species from Mt Meru (N. Tanzania) and the specimen (Rammell F.D. 3492 (K)) from Narok (S. Kenya) originally included by me in H. conjungens (H. sp. A sensu Milne-Redhead, 1953), narrow the morphological gap between these species considerably. In Fl. Trop. E. Africa, Guttiferae (Bamps, Robson & Verdcourt, 1978: 30), I expressed doubts as to the exact identification of 'sp. A'; but it is now clear to me that it exhibits an extension of variation of H. kiboense (q.v.) rather than constituting a disjunct population of H. conjungens.