Hypericum roeperianum (Nomenclature)
Shrub or tree 0-6-5 m tall, bushy, with branches ascending. Stems red when young, soon 2-lined to terete; internodes 10-30 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark reddish-brown. Leaves sessile; lamina (25-)30-100(-115) x (5-)10-40 mm, lanceolate or occasionally ovate to elliptic or oblong-elliptic, acute to obtuse, margin recurved to revolute, base cuneate, sometimes subauriculate, paler beneath, sometimes glaucous, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, lower ones ± persistent; venation: 7(9) basal and lower lateral veins (i.e. midrib + 3(4) pairs), the laterals and midrib branches forming dense tertiary reticulum, with secondaries reduced to dots in areolae; laminar glands in secondary venous system, dots (sometimes elongate), without distinct alternating series; marginal glands dark, dense. Inflorescence (1)3-∞-flowered, from l-2(-4) nodes, often with lateral flowering branches; pedicel 5-2 mm long; bracts foliar or intermediate. Flowers 30-55 mm in diam., stellate; buds ovoid, acute. Sepals (2.5-)5-8 x (1.5-)3.5-5 mm, imbricate, unequal or unequal, ovate-lanceolate to ovate, acute to obtuse, margin subentire to glandular-ciliate or -denticulate, midrib undifferentiated; laminar glands linear, numerous; submarginal and marginal glands dark. Petals golden or bright yellow, sometimes tinged reddish, persistent, spreading to reflexed, (12-)20-35 x (7-)10-20 mm, 3-4 sepals, obovate, with apiculus small, rounded; margin entire, eglandular, or with submarginal to marginal dark glands or dark-glandular-ciliate; laminar glands linear, not interrupted, occasionally also a few dark dots or short streaks. Stamen fascicles persistent, each with c. 35-45 stamens, longest 10-20 mm long, 0-5-0-65 x petals, with filaments very shortly united. Ovary 4-7 x 3-5-5 mm, ovoid to subglobose; styles 8-12 mm long, l-6-2-3(-3) x ovary, completely coherent or rarely almost so; stigma mass capitate. Capsule 9-14 x 7-10 mm, broadly to narrowly ovoid. Seeds yellow-brown, c. 1 mm long, cylindric to narrowly pyriform, not winged or carinate, shallowly linear-reticulate.
2n = ?
Dry evergreen forest margins, bushland or grassland, or beside rivers or streams; 840-3300 m.
From Ethiopia to the Transvaal, Zambia, and Angola; also in Guinée, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
H. roeperianum is closely related to H. quartinianum; it has leaf-venation, inflorescence and other characters that are similar but more specialised. Of its 7-8 disjunct areas, two (Guinée and Nigeria/Cameroun) have plants with relatively broad leaves; but the variation is not disjunct between these and the eastern population, so that H. riparium cannot be recognised as distinct. In Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya there are two forms, which intergrade morphologically and are not geographically or ecologically distinct. One (H. roeperianum sensu stricto) has leaves elliptic to lanceolate, acute, slightly discolorous, the venation densely reticulate, not prominent, with small punctiform areolar glands, and sepals ovate-lanceolate; the other (H. schimperi) has leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute to obtuse, markedly discolorous, with laxer venation prominent beneath and larger slightly elongate areolar glands, and sepals ovate. These forms have been recognised as varieties by Moggi & Pisacchi, but the intermediate forms (e.g. Scott Elliot 6569 (BM, K), from Kenya, Gilgit) precluse the recognition of H. schimperi even as a variety.