Hypericum rochelii (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb 0.15–0.5 m tall, erect to ascending, sometimes rooting, with stems few, unbranched below inflorescence or (very rarely) branched throughout when ascending (‘var. latronum’). Stems terete, eglandular, not glaucous; internodes 13–30 mm, usually shorter than leaves. Leaves sessile to subamplexicaul, spreading; lamina 20–50 × 8–15 mm, all triangular-lanceolate or upper triangular-ovate, paler beneath, chartaceous, very rarely with setaceous hairs beneath (galled? - ‘H. setiferum’); apex subacute, margin plane to recurved, entire, base cordate to rounded; venation: 3–4 pairs of main laterals from lower half of midrib, branched, with lax tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale, rather sparse to almost absent and sometimes a few black (‘subsp. urumovii’); intramarginal glands black, dense to irregular or rarely sparse (‘H. pseudotenellum’). Inflorescence 3–25-flowered from 1–3 nodes, rather lax, without lower branches or rarely with one to numerous flowering branches (see above), the whole broadly conic to corymbiform or concave; pedicels 1– 1.5 mm or (central flower) to 6 mm; lower bracts reduced-foliar, ovate, entire; upper bracts and bracteoles linear, black-glandular-fimbriate. Flowers c. 20 mm in diam., stellate; buds broadly ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 5, subequal, not or very shortly united, 3.5–6.5(–8) × 1.5–3 mm, oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, subacute, glandular-fimbriate; veins: 3, unbranched, becoming prominent in fruit; laminar glands pale, shortly striiform to punctiform; marginal glands black, on fimbriae and sometimes 1–2 intramarginal. Petals 5, bright? yellow, not tinged red, c. 10(–16?) × 3.5 mm, 2–3 × sepals, narrowly obovate, rounded; laminar glands pale, striiform and sometimes a few black, distal; marginal glands black, dense, sometimes with a few distal on cilia. Stamens c. 42–55, longest 8–9 mm, c. 0.8 × petals. Ovary 2.5–4 × 1.3–2 mm, ± narrowly ovoid; styles 5–6 mm, 1.5–2 × ovary. Capsule 9–11 × 5–6 mm, ovoid; valves with globose amber vesicles. Seeds orange-brown, 1.3 mm; testa ribbed-scalariform.
Rocky ground or grassland, calcareous; 450–1800 m.
Romania (southwest Transylvania), southeast Serbia, southern Bulgaria (central and eastern Stara Planina, western Rhodope), northeastern Greece (eastern Makhedonia).
Hypericum rochelii, which is basal to the clade that also includes 10. H. spruneri and 11. H. richeri, has a mixture of primitive and specialised characters. It has the largest capsules in the section, and the laminar black glands in the petals are distal; but the flowers are relatively small and the capsule glands are vesicular. It has a relict distribution in scattered localities in the Balkan region from Romania to Greece, apparently except Albania (pace Jordan & Kožukharov, 1970). Although the leaves and capsules in some southern populations tend to be narrower than in the Romanian plants, none of the variation appears to warrant infraspecific recognition. In particular, the differences between H. rochelii and H. boissieri illustrated by Jordanov & Kožukharov (1970) do not seem to hold.
Hypericum rochelii Griseb. & Schenk is a re-naming of H. richeri sensu Rochel non Vill. The BM Rochel specimen, labelled “In valle Czerna Banatus, 1835” is apparently from the type locality, and one in WU labelled “ad thermas Herculi, Ban.” may be an isotype.
Hypericum setiferum has an unusual combination of characters, as Stefanoff pointed out. He compared them with those of four species, one of which (H. rochelii) seems to me to be where it belongs. The leaves compare well with those of that species except for the setaceous hairs on the lower surface, which could well be the result of a mutation or a gall. At any rate, there would appear to be no good reason for recognising this form taxonomically.
Hypericum rochelii var. latronum Guşul. differs from the type in having flowering branches along the whole stem.