Hypericum stellatum (Nomenclature)
Shrub c. 1-2.5 m tall, with branches spreading to subpendulous. Stems orange-red, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon 2-lined, sometimes becoming terete; internodes 10-31 mm long, shorter than leaves; bark reddish-brown. Leaves petiolate, with petiole 1-2 mm long; lamina 20-55 x 10-22 mm, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate to narrowly ovate, acute to obtuse or rounded-apiculate, margin plane, base cuneate to rounded, paler or sometimes ± densely glaucous beneath, chartaceous; venation: 4(5) pairs main laterals, with midrib branching ± obscurely distally, without visible tertiary reticulum; laminar glands dots and short streaks, ventral glands dense. Inflorescence 1-14-flowered, lax, with branches slender, from terminal node; pedicels 10-15 mm long; bracts narrowly lanceolate, deciduous. Flowers 25-40 mm in diam., stellate; buds ± broadly ovoid, apiculate to shortly acuminate. Sepals 8-13 x 2-5 mm, free, imbricate or open at base, equal, widely spreading to subrecurved in bud and fruit, ± narrowly lanceolate, acute, with margin entire (reddish) midrib conspicuous, veins not prominent; laminar glands linear c. 10. Petals golden yellow, sometimes tinged red, spreading to shallowly incurved, 12-20 x 8-14 mm, c. 1.5 x sepals, obovate, with apiculus subterminal, acute, margin entire or minutely denticulate towards apex. Stamen fascicles each with 30-55 stamens, longest 10-13 mm long, c. 0.6 x petals; anthers golden yellow. Ovary 4-6 x 3-4 mm, ovoid-conic to ovoid; styles 6-9-5 mm long, 1.2-1.5 x ovary, usually flexuous and ± twisted: stigmas scarcely capitate. Capsule 10-15 x 6-8 mm, ovoid. Seeds c. 1.1 mm long, dark red-brown, narrowly cylindric, not carinate, shallowly and loosely reticulate.
Thickets and slopes; 800-1350 m.
China (NE. Sichuan).
Hypericum stellatum can be distinguished from H. dyeri, with which it has been confused, by the relatively shorter styles (c. 1.2-1.5 x ovary, not 1.5-2 x), larger flowers, broader petals and larger leaves without markedly reticulate venation. The original concept of H. stellatum was based mainly on cultivated plants of unknown origin, but it included some herbarium material of which some has subsequently proved to belong to H. choisyanum and two then undescribed species, H. lancasteri and H. curvisepalum. The status of the cultivated specimens, however, has been clarified by recent collections made in Yunnan and from the study of specimens in Chengdu herbarium (SZ). It appears that there are two populations, respectively in northern Yunnan and north-eastern Sichuan, which can be separated by the size of the ovary, the length and form of the styles, the stoutness of the inflorescence, and usually by the density of ventral leaf glands. The northern population is H. stellatum and the southern one, which merits specific status (taking into account the above differences and the geographical disjunction), I have named H. lancasteri.