Hypericum lalandii
Perennial (? or annual) herb 0.04-0.55(-0.7) m tall, erect to decumbent, not rooting at the base, branching at or near base and sometimes distally, occasionally also elsewhere. Stems green, 4-angled, ancipitous above; internodes 5-60(-75) mm long, exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile, erect or usually ascending, not tetrastichous, persistent; lamina (3-)5-30(-36) x 1-7 mm, upper triangular-lanceolate or narrowly elliptic to linear, lower triangular-ovate to ovate or elliptic, plane or margin recurved, not cucullate, midrib prominent beneath and smooth, concolorous or paler beneath, sometimes glaucous, subcoriaceous to chartaceous; apex acute to obtuse or (lower leaves) rounded, margin entire, base subcordate- amplexicaul to cuneate, not sheathing, free; basal veins 1-7, only midrib sometimes obscurely branched, tertiary venation very obscure or absent; laminar glands dense, not or scarcely prominent. Inflorescence l-c. 50-flowered, terminal, branching regularly dichasial/monochasial, rarely with paired flowering branches from 1-3 nodes below; pedicels 1-15 mm long (in fruit), bracts and bracteoles linear to subulate. Flowers 6-22 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 2-10 x 1.5-3 mm, subequal to equal, imbricate, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute; veins 3-7, unbranched; glands linear, distally punctiform. Petals yellow or apricot-yellow to orange, sometimes tinged red in bud, 3.5-12 x 1.5-5 mm, 1-2 x sepals, oblanceolate or oblong-spathulate to oblong; apiculus rounded to obsolete; glands absent. Stamens 40-60, not grouped, longest 2.5-7 mm long, c. 0.3-0.65 x petals. Ovary 1-2.5 x 0.6-1.5.mm, narrowly ovoid-conic to narrowly ovoid; styles (2)3-4, 1-4.5 mm long, 0.6-0.9(-l.2) x ovary; stigmas narrowly capitate to subclavate. Capsule 3.5-8 x 2.5-4 mm, narrowly ovoid to ovoid-conic (or subglobose – not in key), 0.8-2 x sepals. Seeds 0.6-1 mm long; testa finely scalariform.
Marshes and wet places in grassland ('prairies seches' in Madagascar); (Natal, Cape Province)-2550 (Kenya) m.
Northern Nigeria (Bauchi Plateau), Ethiopia, Sudan Republic, Kenya, and eastern Zaire south to South Africa (Cape Province), west to southern Zaire, Zambia, Namibia; Madagascar (not Comoro Is.).
H. lalandii is clearly very closely related to the Colombian H. relictum, but can be superficially very similar to H. paucifolium. The most luxuriant specimen that I have seen (Natal, Alexandra Distr., Dumisa, Rudatis 793 (BM)) can, however, be distinguished from the Morelos form of H. paucifolium (p. xxx), by the narrower (subclavate, not broadly capitate) stigmas and the longer styles that are longer than (not equalling or shorter than) the ovary.
The most primitive forms of H. lalandii occur on either side of the Natal-Transvaal border, whence there are reduction trends (in general) south to the Cape of Good Hope and north and west to Angola and Nigeria. As the possibility of the ancestors of H. lalandii having reached southern African overland from Colombia (i.e. before the Atlantic Ocean was formed) would seem to be negligible (see p.xx), its arrival (or that of its ancestor) in that region must almost certainly have been the result of ancient long-distance transport (by migrating birds?).
The variation in H. lalandii is very great over its wide range, but there are almost no discontinuities. Even Bredell's var. transvaalense , with prominently gland-dotted stem and leaves narrowly lanceolate rather than narrowly elliptic to linear, appears to be merely a local variant that does not merit taxonomic recognition. The Madagascar plants all have narrowly ovoid-conic capsules 1.5-2 times as long as the sepals; but this form is linked to the more usual broader and relatively shorter capsules by South African specimens, so that it is not desirable to recognise Keller's var. madagascariense.
According to Perrier de la Bathie (Fl. Madag. Hyperic.: 6), Drake's figure was drawn from the above specimen of H. comorense Drake. H. lalandii does not occur in the Comoro Is.