Hypericum longistylum (Nomenclature)
Shrub c. 1 m tall, erect, with long branches divaricate and short ones pinnate. Stems red, 2-4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete; internodes 10-30 mm long, shorter than to exceeding leaves; bark pale grey. Leaves subsessile or with petiole up to 1 mm long; lamina 10-31 x 6-16 mm, narrowly oblong to elliptic or subcircular, rounded to subapiculate, margin plane, base cuneate to shortly angustate, ± densely glaucous beneath, chartaceous; venation: c. 3 pairs main laterals (faint), the midrib branches not or scarcely visible, without or rarely with very faint tertiary reticulum; laminar glands small to very small dots; ventral glands absent. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal and on short lateral branches; pedicels 8-12 mm long; bracts foliar, persistent. Flowers 25-45(-50) mm in diam., stellate; buds narrowly ellipsoid, acute. Sepals 3-6(-10) x 0-5-2(-3) mm, free or united at the base, imbricate to open, equal or subequal, spreading or recurved in bud and fruit, linear or rarely elliptic, acute, with margin entire; midrib ± conspicuous, other veins not prominent; laminar glands c. 4, basally linear, punctiform toward apex. Petals golden yellow to orange, not tinged red, spreading, (11-)15-22(-24) x 4-8(-10) mm, 2.5-3.5 x sepals, oblanceolate, without or almost without apiculus, margin entire, eglandular. Stamen fascicles each with c. 15-25 stamens, longest 15-25 mm long; anthers yellow. Ovary 3-4 x 2-3 mm, ellipsoid to globose, sometimes substipitate; styles 10-18 mm long, c. 3.5-6 x ovary, united almost to the apices then spreading; stigmas small. Capsule (4-)6-12 x 4-5 mm, ellipsoid to subglobose, sometimes substipitate. Seeds not seen.
On cliffs and dry banks; 200-2090 m.
China (Hubei, Shaanxi, Hunan). Also recorded from Gansu, Sichuan, Henan, and Anhui.
H. longistylum is most similar morphologically to form (iv) of H . monogynum from Sichuan (Fig. 4). Pampanini, in Nuovo G. bot. ital. II, 17: 670(1910), described three varieties of this species: (i) var. longistylum with large flowers and ellipsoid ovary and fruit, (ii) var. silvestrii with small flowers and ellipsoid ovary and fruit, (iii) var. giraldii with large flowers and globose ovary and fruit. Vars (i) and (ii) both occur at lower altitudes (200-1200 m) in north and west Hubei, Sichuan and Hunan (and probably Anhui and Henan) and cannot be distinguished on flower size; whereas var. giraldii is found at higher altitudes (1950-2090 m) in central to north Hubei and in central and north Shaanxi and possibly Gansu. The difference in ovary shape between vars (i)-(ii) and (iii) seems to be constant, although some specimens of 'var. sylvestrii' have rather broader ovaries than is usual in var. longistylum. It seems possible, then, to recognise two subspecies.