Hypericum uralum (Nomenclature)
Shrub, 0.3-2 m tall, bushy, with stems erect, arching, often frondose. Stems red, 4-lined or 4-angled and strongly ancipitous when young, eventually 2-lined or terete; internodes 5-20 m long, shorter than leaves; bark reddish-brown. Leaves petiolate, with flat petiole 0-5-1 mm long; lamina 10-40 x 4-24 mm, all lanceolate or older ones ovate, acute to rounded-apiculate, margin plane, base narrowly to rarely broadly cuneate, ± densely glaucous beneath, chartaceous; venation: 3 pairs main laterals, with midrib branches and tertiary reticulum scarcely visible; laminar glands streaks (towards midrib) and dots; ventral glands usually ± dense. Inflorescence l-3(-10)-flowered, from 1-2 nodes, subcorymbiform, if from 2 nodes then with short apical internode, often with 1-3-flowered branches from middle of stem; pedicels 3-7 mm long; bracts narrowly oblong, deciduous. Flowers 15-30 mm in diam., ± deeply cyathiform; buds broadly ovoid to globose, obtuse to rounded. Sepals 3.5-6(9) x (1)2-5(6.5) mm, free, imbricate, subequal or unequal, erect in bud and fruit, oblong or elliptic to obovate-spathulate, rounded or very rarely obtuse, with margin entire, narrowly hyaline; midrib not or scarcely distinct, veins not or rarely slightly prominent; laminar glands linear, numerous. Petals golden to deep yellow, not tinged red, incurved, 9-18 x 5-12 mm, 2.5-3 x sepals, broadly obovate to subcircular, with apiculus lateral to subterminal, rounded to obscure; margin entire, without infra- marginal gland dots. Stamen fascicles each with 40-60 stamens, longest 4-6(8) mm long, 0.25-0.5 x petals; anthers golden to deep yellow. Ovary 3-5 x 2.5-3 mm, broadly ovoid to globose; styles 2.5-4.5 mm long, 0-6-0-9(1) x ovary, erect and ± divergent near apex or wholly outcurving; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule 7-11(13) x 7-11 mm, subglobose (or more rarely broadly ovoid) to globose. Seeds dark brown, 0.4-0.6 mm long, cylindric-ellipsoid, scarcely carinate, shallowly linear- foveolate.
2n = 20.
In dry, open habitats (grassy or rocky slopes, open woodland, pastures, cliff edges), and sometimes in thickets and by streams; 1500-3600 m.
China (Xizang [Tibet]), Burma (Kachin, Chin), India (Manipur, Mizoram?, Nagaland, Meghalaya), Bhutan and Himalaya west to Pakistan (Sarghoda).
H. uralum is closely related to (and apparently derived from) H. henry subsp. uraloides; some of the specimens from Khasiya approach the latter in morphology rather closely. Indeed, it is difficult to describe good characters to separate these taxa, although they seem quite distinct in cultivation. However, the presence of frondose branching (i.e. with lateral branches in one plane) in H. uralum, in combination with the usually broader leaves and sepals, will usually suffice to distinguish it from H. henry subsp. uraloides. In Flora of West Pakistan (Robson, 1973), I cited Curtis's bot. Mag. : t. 2375 (1823) as the type of H. uralum, as the cultivated plant from which the illustration was made was apparently not preserved. It was grown from Nepal seed (probably sent by Wallich in 1818-21) by Whitby, Brame & Milne at their Fulham Nursery, London, and flowered in 1822. It is clear, however, that Don obtained at least the epithet uralum from Hamilton's notes; and in the introduction to Prodromus florae nepalensis (Don, 1825) he claims to have seen all Hamilton's Nepal specimens, collected in 1802-3. The Hamilton specimen of H. uralum in BM must, therefore, have some type status. Don's description in Curtis's bot. Mag. was probably derived initially from the Nepal specimen and confirmed or modified after he had seen the cultivated plant, so that specimen and illustration should be regarded as syntypes. As a specimen is always to be preferred to an illustration when choosing lectotypes, I have selected the Hamilton specimen as lectotype of H. uralum.