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Nomenclature
Hypericum androsaemum L.
Nomenclature
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Genus: HypericumSection: sect. Androsaemum
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Synonyms: 6
DIAGNOSTIC DESCRIPTION
Shrub 0-3-0-7 m tall, bushy with numerous stems from branching but not rooting base, with branches erect. Stems 2-lined when young, eventually terete; internodes 3-9 mm long, shorter than to exceeding leaves; bark fissured or scaling. Leaves sessile, sometimes amplexicaul, without goat-like smell when crushed; lamina (25-)40-120(-150) x 20-80 mm, oblong-ovate or triangular-ovate to broadly ovate, rounded or rarely obtuse, margin plane, base truncate to cordate, paler beneath, not glaucous, papyraceous; venation: 4-5 pairs of ascending main lateral veins, with tertiary reticulum ± prominent on both sides; laminar glands small; intramarginal glands dense. Inflorescence 1-11-flowered, from 1-2 nodes with ± condensed internode, corymbose to pseudo-umbellate with branches ± narrowly ascending, without accessory flowers, sometimes with 1-3-flowered branches from node below; pedicels 8-14 mm long; bracts reduced, linear-lanceolate to subulate. Flowers 15- 25 mm in diam.; buds globose, rounded. Sepals 6-12(-15) x 3-7 mm, imbricate, markedly unequal, spreading to deflexed and enlarging after anthesis, deflexed and persistent in fruit, oblong-ovate to broadly ovate, rounded, 7-9(-ll)-veined from base with veins ± densely reticulate; laminar glands punctiform or occasionally striiform; intramarginal glands rather dense. Petals golden yellow, not tinged red, incurved, 6-10(-12) x 3-7 mm, equalling or slightly shorter than sepals, obovate, without apiculus. Stamen fascicles each with 20-25(-30) stamens, longest 7-11 mm long, c. 0.9-1.1 x petals. Ovary 4-5 x 3.5-4.5(-5) mm, ellipsoid-subglobose, rounded to truncate; styles 2-2.5 mm long, c. 0.5 x ovary, erect, the upper half sharply outcurved; stigmas subcapitate. 'Capsule' 7-12 x 6-8 mm, broadly cylindric- ovoid or cylindric-ellipsoid to globose, rounded to retuse, thin-walled and fleshy, maturing from reddish to dark reddish-brown or purplish-black, lucent, indehiscent (but sometimes splitting in three if compressed laterally when dry). Seeds reddish- brown, c. 1 mm long, partially or rarely completely unilaterally winged, without terminal winged appendages.