Hypericum rigidum A.St.-Hil.

Shrub or subshrub (0-25)0-5-2 m tall, erect or decumbent and branching at the base, with branches ascending-pyramidal or ± diffuse, pseudo-dichotomous or lateral. Stems dull red-brown, 4-lined when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 3-30(-45) mm long, shorter to longer than leaves. Leaves sessile, spreading; lamina 8-60 x 2-13 mm, linear-oblong or narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate-oblong to rarely lanceolate, plane or margin recurved, paler and reddish beneath, not glaucous, coriaceous; apex acute or subacuminate to rounded, base parallel-sided to cordate, free; basal or near-basal veins 7, midrib pinnately branched, tertiary reticulum lax; laminar glands dense, prominent beneath or obscure. Inflorescence l-9(-22)- flowered, dichasial and sometimes pseudo-dichotomous, sometimes with branches from up to 4 nodes below, the whole cylindric to pyramidal; primary pedicels 6-20(-32) mm long; bracts foliar, gradually decreasing in size or rarely suddenly reduced, the ultimate ones very rarely lanceolate- subulate (see below). Flowers 13-25(-30) mm in diam., stellate; buds ellipsoid, acute. Sepals 5-13 x 0.9-3 mm, equal, not imbricate, narrowly oblong or oblong-linear to narrowly elliptic-oblong or narrowly elliptic, acute; veins 5(7), midrib sometimes prominent; glands proximally linear, punctiform in upper c.1/3. Petals yellow to orange (when fading?), 6.5-14(-17) x 3.5-6(-8) mm, 1.2-1.4 x sepals, oblanceolate to oblong-obovate; apiculus acute; glands linear to elongate-punctiform. Stamens (30-)40-75, 5-fascicled, longest 3.5-6 mm long, c. 0.4-0.6 x petals. Ovary 1.5-2.5 x 1-1.6 mm, ovoid; styles 5(4), l.5-3(-3.5) mm long, 1-1.5 x ovary, spreading; stigmas clavate. Capsule 4.5-9 x 3-6 mm, broadly ellipsoid, obtuse to subrounded, shorter than sepals. Seeds 0.6-0.8 mm long; testa ribbed-scalariform.