Hypericum seniawinii (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb (0.15-)0.3-0.6 m tall, erect from creeping, rooting and sometimes branching base, with stems usually single, sometimes branched above, with branches virgate to curved-ascending. Stems terete, eglandular; internodes 20-55 mm, shorter than leaves or usually exceeding them. Leaves sessile or with broad 'petiole' to 1 mm; lamina (15-)20-50 ´ 5-13 mm, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, paler and rarely minutely papillose (Guangdong) beneath, not glaucous, plane, chartaceous; apex obtuse to rounded, margin entire, base subcordate-amplexicaul to broadly or narrowly cuneate; venation: 3(4) pairs of main laterals from lower third of midrib, with tertiary reticulation not prominent, dense; laminar glands pale, dense, rather large; intramarginal glands all black or the occasional one pale, dense. Inflorescence c. 5-50-flowered, from 1-3 nodes, densely subcorymbose to broadly pyramidal, with flowering branches from up to 9 nodes below (often with a 'gap' of sterile nodes), the whole then cylindric; pedicels 1-2 mm; bracts and bracteoles ovate to linear-lanceolate, entire or occasionally with basal glandular cilia or rudimentary auricles, persistent. Flowers 9-15(-c. 20) mm in diam., infundibulariform to stellate or recurved; buds ellipsoid, acute to obtuse. Sepals 5, 2.5-5 ´ 1-2 mm, subequal to equal, erect in bud and fruit, oblong-lanceolate, acute, entire or subentire; veins 5(3), unbranched or outer pairs partly united; laminar glands pale, linear to striiform; marginal glands all black or rarely a few pale, in regular or interrupted row, sessile or slightly prominent. Petals 5, bright? yellow, not tinged red in bud, 7-10 ´ 2-3 mm, 2-3 ´ sepals, narrowly oblong to narrowly oblanceolate-elliptic, margin subentire, laminar glands pale, striiform to punctiform or absent; marginal glands black, distal, sessile or more proximal immersed. Stamens 24-c. 50, '3'-fascicled, longest 5-12 mm, slightly shorter than petals; anther gland black. Ovary 3-locular, c. 1.5-3 ´ 0.7-1.3 mm, narrowly ovoid; styles 3, (2.5-)4-10 mm, c. 1.6-3 ´ ovary, free, divaricate-incurved; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule c. 5-6 ´ 4-5 mm, ovoid, exceeding sepals; valves with dense longitudinal vittae. Seeds yellowish-brown, c. 0.5 mm long, scarcely carinate; testa finely foveolate.
Slopes, grasslands and roadsides; (118-)500-1600(-2000) m.
South-east China (Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang south to Guangxi and Guangdong).
H. seniawinii and the very closely related H. hengshanense W. T. Wang appear to be south-eastern derivatives of the H. pedunculatum form of H. przewalskii. H. seniawinii differs from H. hengshanense in lacking glandular auricles on the leaves but sometimes bears these on the bracts and bracteoles, and the leaves are usually relatively narrower than in that species; but in both species the leaves become markedly narrower towards the south of their respective ranges. Wang 447 (Jiangxi) is intermediate in having glandular-ciliate bracts and sepals and glandular-auriculate bracts, but the leaves all lack glandular auricles and all except the uppermost are shortly and broadly petiolate. For differences between it and H. petiolulatum, see the latter (below).