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Nomenclature
Hypericum madagascariense Steud.
Nomenclature
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Genus: HypericumSection: sect. Campylosporus
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Synonyms: 4
DIAGNOSTIC DESCRIPTION
Shrub 1-3 m tall, 'ericoid', with branches ascending or spreading. Stems reddish-brown when young, soon 2-angled, eventually terete; internodes 1.5-10 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark red-brown. Leaves sessile; lamina 8-18 x 2-9 mm, narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic-oblong to broadly elliptic or obovate, obtuse to rounded-apiculate, margin plane or recurved, base cuneate, reflexed-auriculate, paler beneath, not glaucous, subcoriaceous, lower ones eventually deciduous; venation: 1 basal vein, the laterals interrupted by 6-10 cross-veins and reduced to ± short streaks and dots in the areoles of the ±dense tertiary reticulum; laminar glands in secondary venous system, numerous, streaks or dots; marginal glands pale to dark, dense to sparse, or absent. Inflorescence 1-flowered; pedicel 2-4 mm long; bracts intermediate in form. Flowers 25-35 mm in diam., stellate; buds ovoid, subacute. Sepals 7-11 x 2-3 mm, imbricate, subequal, erect in bud but eventually more or less spreading, ovate to triangular-ovate, obtuse to rounded, margin entire or with a few usually glandular cilia towards the apex, midrib ± distinct; laminar glands linear, numerous; submarginal glands dark; marginal glands absent or dark. Petals golden yellow, not flushed red or orange outside ?, persistent, spreading or reflexed, 12-20 x 6-9 mm, c. 2 x sepals, obovate-oblanceolate, with apiculus small, rounded; margin entire or with minute dark sessile or subsessile glands, with dark intramarginal dots at outer margin; laminar glands linear, scarcely interrupted distally, and occasionally also dark, punctiform. Stamen fascicles persistent, each with c. 25 stamens, longest 7-10 mm long, c. 0-5 x petals, with filaments united at the base. Ovary 3-4 x 2.5-3 mm, broadly ovoid; styles 5-6 mm long, c. 1.5 x ovary, completely coherent; stigmatic mass capitate. Capsule 7-8 x 6-7 mm, broadly ovoid. Seeds yellowish-brown, c. 1-5 mm long, narrowly cylindric, not carinate or winged or with distal expansion, finely linear-reticulate.