Hypericum kawaranum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb c. 0.5 m tall, erect from creeping, rooting (and branching?) base, with stems few and caespitose?, not branching below inflorescence. Stems slightly 2-lined, not becoming terete?, eglandular; internodes 30–70 mm, slightly shorter to longer than leaves. Leaves sessile; lamina 35–40 × 20–25 mm, ovate to oblong-ovate, paler beneath?, chartaceous; apex subapiculate to rounded, margin plane, base shallowly cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 3 pairs of main laterals from lower quarter of midrib; tertiary reticulation dense, scarcely visible above; laminar glands black and sometimes pale, punctiform, sparse; intramarginal glands black, dense. Inflorescence c. 20-flowered, from 3 nodes, lax, with one pair of lower branches, the whole broadly cylindric; pedicels c. 3 mm; bracts ovate, bracteoles ovate to linear-lanceolate. Flowers 20–22(–25?) mm in diam., stellate; buds broadly ovoid, obtuse. Sepals 5, unequal, 4–6 × 1.5–3 mm, oblong to ovate, rounded to obtuse, entire; veins 5, branching and reticulating; laminar glands pale, few, striiform to punctiform or absent; intramarginal glands black, dense to irregular. Petals 5, golden? yellow, not tinged red, 9.5–12 × 4–6.5 mm, 2–2.5 × sepals, ovate-oblong to elliptic, rounded, entire without apiculus; laminar glands pale, linear to striiform; marginal glands black, few, subapical, or absent. Stamens c. 35–40, ‘3’-fascicled, longest c. 7–9 mm, c. 0.75–0.8 × petals; anther gland black. Ovary 2.5–3 × c. 2 mm, ovoid; styles 3, free, spreading, 4.2–6.5 mm, c. 1.5–2 ×ovary; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule not seen.
Japan (Hokkaidō).
Hypericum kawaranum is very similar to 13. H. pibairense, differing in its more numerous, smaller flowers with shorter stigmas (relatively and absolutely) and somewhat smaller leaves with a subapiculate apex. Known as yet from only one locality, it forms a morphological link between 13. H. pibairense, on the one hand, and both the H. erectum and H. ovalifolium groups (Spp. 20–32 and 33–42 respectively). While the former group (apart from 25. H. vulcanicum and the widespread and variable 31. H. erectum) is confined to Hokkaidō, the H. ovalifolium group is absent from that island except for 42. H. pseudopetiolatum, which occurs in the extreme south.