Hypericum wardianum (Nomenclature)
Shrub up to c. 1.5 m tall, bushy, with main branches erect and laterals widely spreading. Stems 2-4-lined when young, soon terete; internodes 20-50 mm long, shorter than leaves. Leaves petiolate, with petiole 1.5-2.5 mm long; lamina 35-70 x (10-)14-22 mm, lanceolate, apiculate-obtuse to rounded, margin plane, base broadly to narrowly cuneate, paler beneath, not glaucous, chartaceous; venation: 3 pairs main laterals without or with lax tertiary venation; laminar glands long streaks to dots; ventral glands absent. Inflorescence 1-4-flowered, from apical node; pedicels 5-10 mm long; bracts linear-elliptic. Flowers c. 30-35 mm in diam., ± deeply cyathiform; buds ovoid-subglobose, broadly obtuse to rounded. Sepals 10-11 x 4.5-5.0 mm, free not imbricate, subequal, erect in bud, erect to spreading in fruit, oblong to elliptic or oblanceolate-spathulate, apiculate-obtuse to rounded, with margin entire or finely eroded-denticulate, midrib and veins not prominent; laminar glands all linear or distally punctiform, numerous. Petals golden yellow, not red-tinged, rounded, markedly incurved, 15-20 x 10-15 mm, 2.0-2.5 x sepals, broadly obovate, with apiculus subterminal, rounded; margin entire, eglandular. Stamen fascicles each with c. 70 stamens, longest c. 8-9 mm, c. 0.8 x ovary, free, spreading-outcurved. Capsule 18-23 x 10-12 mm, narrowly cylindric-ellipsoid to ± broadly ellipsoid. Seeds reddish-brown, 0.7-0.9 mm long, cylindric, not or scarcely carinate, linear-reticulate.
Dry hillsides, cliff faces and deciduous forest clearings; 2560-3000 m.
China (NW Yunnan), Burma (Kachin).
Since its introduction in 1953, H. wardianum has been grown in several English gardens as H. hookerianum or H. aff. hookerianum. Like H. fosteri, however, it differs from that species in having unribbed sepals, spreading in fruit, and elongate capsules. It differs from H. fosteri in habit and in having narrower leaves with a cuneate (not rounded) base, and longer laminar glands, smaller flowers withsepalls erect in bud and spreading (not recurved in fruit, and an ellipsoid or cylindric-ellipsoid capsule.