Hypericum bourgaei (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb 0.1–0.3 m tall, erect from ascending base or wholly ascending from taproot, with stems up to c. 13, caespitose, unbranched below inflorescence. Stems 2-lined, black-gland-dotted, glabrous, glaucous; internodes 9–25 mm, shorter than to exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile, spreading to erect, glaucous; lamina 7– 22 × 2–7 mm, narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong to linear or oblanceolate, concolorous, chartaceous, glabrous; apex rounded, margin plane, base rounded to broadly cuneate; venation: without or with 1–3 pairs of lateral veins from lower quarter to sixth of midrib, not branching, without visible reticulation; laminar glands pale, rather dense, and black near apex; marginal glands black, irregular. Inflorescence 6–c. 40-flowered from 3–6 nodes, without flowering branches below, the whole narrowly pyramidal; pedicels absent or up to 1mm, relatively stout, glabrous; bracts and bracteoles narrowly oblong to linear, margin black-glandular-ciliate. Flowers 20–22 mm in diam.; buds narrowly ovoid-pyramidal, subacute to rounded. Sepals equal, basally united, 3–4.5 × 1–1.2 mm, narrowly oblong to lanceolate, acute to subacute, glandular-ciliate; veins 3, unbranched; laminar glands black, punctiform; marginal glands black. Petals golden? yellow, veined red, 10– 15 × 4–5 mm, 3–3.8 × sepals, oblanceolate, rounded, apiculus absent; laminar glands black, punctiform; marginal glands black, regular except towards base. Stamens 20–25, longest 8–10 mm, 0.65–0.8 × petals. Ovary 2 × 1 mm, narrowly ovoid; styles 4 mm, c. 2 × ovary. Capsule 8 × 4 mm, ovoid-pyramidal, ripe fruit not seen. Seeds not seen.
Fallow ground on clay; 900–1700 m.
Turkey (central Anatolia).
Hypericum bourgaei differs essentially from 2. H. laxiflorum in its more erect habit, narrower leaves and inflorescence and absence of indumentum. The nearest population morphologically to the latter species is found around Ankara, from which two reduction trends round the dry Tuz Gölü area can be traced: (i) south-westward through western Konya to western Antalya (the type being a reduced montane form from this area) and (ii) south-eastward to Niğde and south-east Konya. Trend (i) has given rise to a population that was named H. aviculariifolium subsp. depilatum var. bourgaei in Fl. of Turkey (Robson, 1967b). Despite the occurrence of somewhat intermediate forms in Denizli between it and H. bourgaei, it can be given specific rank (see 7. H. leprosum).