Hypericum oblongifolium (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.45-l.2(-2.4) m tall, much branched, with branches spreading or drooping, sometimes straggling or semi-scandent. Stems red, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon terete; internodes 15-50 mm long, shorter than or rarely exceeding leaves; bark grey. Leaves sessile; lamina 30-93 x 10-42 mm, elliptic to oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse or apiculate to rounded, margin plane, base cuneate to rounded, paler beneath, sometimes glaucous, chartaceous, lower ones eventually deciduous; venation: 3-4(5) pairs main laterals, branched, the midrib pinnately branched, with tertiary reticulum lax to dense, conspicuous; laminar glands short lines or streaks or dots in the reticular areolae; ventral glands dense to sparse. Inflorescence l-3(-8)-flowered, from apical node, corymbiform, sometimes also on short lateral shoots from up to c. 16 nodes towards base of current growth, then cylindric-ellipsoid; pedicels 4-20 mm long; bracts intermediate, persistent to small, lanceolate, deciduous. Flowers 35-65(-75) mm, in diam., stellate; buds ovoid, obtuse to rounded. Sepals 5-8 x 2.5-5 mm, free, imbricate, subequal to somewhat unequal, erect in bud, ± ascending in fruit, narrowly ovate to elliptic-oblong, acute to rounded, margin entire or sometimes minutely denticulate near apex; midrib obscure but apex sometimes incrassate, other veins not prominent; laminar glands numerous, linear. Petals bright yellow to bright yellow-orange, not tinged red, spreading, 20-30 x 10-16 mm, c. 4 x sepals, obovate to oblanceolate, with apiculus lateral, rounded, margin entire, eglandular. Stamen fascicles each with c. 30 stamens, longest 15-20 mm long, c. 0.7 x petals, anthers yellow. Ovary 4-7 x 3-5.5 mm, ovoid-pyramidal to broadly ovoid; styles 9-14 mm long, c. 2-3 x ovary, free, erect or slightly apically outcurved; stigmas small to subcapitate. Capsule 9-17 x 7-11 mm, ovoid to ovoid-conic. Seeds dark reddish-brown, 1-1.2 mm long, cylindric or cylindric-ovoid, narrowly carinate, very shallowly linear-foveolate to ribbed- scalariform.
2n = 24, 44, 46, 48.
In damp or sheltered cliff crevices, in thickets or Quercus forest, or on grassy or stony hillsides; (600)750-2700 m.
Pakistan (north), India (Kashmir to Kumaun), Nepal (west, central).
Despite the recorded variation in chromosome number from diploid (2n = 24) to tetraploid (2n = 44, 46, 48), morphological variation in H. oblongifolium does not appear to be great. Stem and leaves tend to be more glaucous and parts somewhat smaller towards the western (drier) end of its range, but there is no evidence of morphological discontinuity. It is separated geographically from its nearest relatives by disjunctions of varying size, viz. to the south of the Ganges Valley (H. gaitii), to northern Turkey (H. calycinum) and to Bhutan (H. griffithii). Although Hardwicke (1801) collected this species from 'between Dosay and Bedeyl' in 1796 and sent seed to Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1797 from 'between Hurdwar and Shreenagur [Srinagar]', Roxburgh named it H. cernuum only in 1814 and did not himself provide a valid description until 1832, by which time David Don (1825) had validated this name. Meanwhile, Choisy (1821) had described a specimen sent from Herb. Lambert (BM) to Geneva in 1816 as H. oblongifolium. This specimen is annotated 'Nidas' or 'Sides'. This could well be 'Sides', because Hardwicke 4 (BM) is labelled 'Sides of high Mountains'. The BM specimen is thus likely to be part of the type collection.