Hypericum iwatelittorale (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb 0.25-0.32 m tall, erect, with stems solitary or few and caespitose, branched above. Stems 2-lined, with black punctiform glands on lines; internodes exceeding to equalling leaves. Leaves sessile (main stem) to c. 0.5 mm petiolate (laterals); lamina (8-)12-14 ´ 5-8 mm, ovate to elliptic-oblong (main stem) or elliptic to oblanceolate (laterals), paler beneath, chartaceous; apex rounded to rounded-obtuse, margin entire, base cuneate to rounded-amplexicaul (upper); venation: 3-(4-) pairs of laterals from lower quarter to fifth of midrib; laminar glands pale, punctiform, dense; intramarginal glands all black or some reddish, dense to spaced. Inflorescence (1)3-c.30-flowered from up to 3 nodes, with flowering branches from up to 4 nodes below, corymbiform to cylindric and then dense; pedicels 0.8-1 mm; bracts small, lanceolate, entire. Flowers 9-10 mm in diam., stellate?; buds ellipsoid, subacute. Sepals 5, subequal, 3-4 ´1-2 mm, ovate-oblong to lanceolate, acute to subacuminate, entire; veins 5, outer pair(s) branched; laminar glands pale, linear-striiform to punctiform; intramarginal glands black, few or absent. Petals 5, bright yellow, not tinged red in bud, 6-9 ´ c. 2-3 mm, obovate-oblong, distally subcrenate; laminar glands pale, linear to punctiform, and sometimes 1-2 black distal, striiform-punctiform; marginal glands black, very few or absent. Stamens c. 50?, '3'-fascicled, longest c. 7 mm, c. 0.8 ´ petals; anther gland black. Ovary 3-locular; styles 3, free, 3.5-4 mm, ? ´ ovary, spreading-outcurved; stigmas narrow. Capsule 5-8 ´ 4-5 mm, c. 2 ´ sepals, ovoid-conic to ovoid; valves longitudinally vittate. Seeds dark brown, 1.2 mm long, cylindric; testa linear-foveolate.
Coastal
Japan (Honshû - Iwate).
H. iwatelittorale was included doubtfully by Kimura (1951) in H. pseudopetiolatum (subsect. 2. Erectum), but the gland-dotted raised stem lines reveal that its true position is in subsect. 1. Hypericum. It is morphologically very close to H. tosaense but considerably distanced geographically. Taken together, the small morphological differences (see key, p. ) and the wide spatial separation warrant its recognition as a species.