Hypericum spruneri (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb 0.3–0.6 m tall, erect to ascending, sometimes rooting, with stems few, unbranched below inflorescence. Stems narrowly 2-lined, eglandular, not glaucous; internodes 25–45 mm, shorter to longer than leaves. Leaves sessile or to 1 mm petiolate, amplexicaul or not, spreading; lamina 20–50(–60) × 5–16 mm, triangular-lanceolate to narrowly oblong or upper triangular-ovate, paler beneath, chartaceous; apex subacute to rounded, margin plane to reflexed, entire or upper leaves sometimes with black-glandular auricles and/or sessile glands or glandular cilia or denticles toward base, base cordate to cuneate; venation: 3–4 pairs of main laterals from lower half of midrib, branched, with lax tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale, usually sparse or absent; intramarginal glands black, spaced, irregular. Inflorescence 5–c. 35-flowered from 1–3 nodes, rather lax, without or rarely with one flowering branch below, the whole corymbiform or subcorymbiform (round-topped); pedicels 2–3.5 mm or median to 7 mm; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate to linear, black-glandular-ciliate to -denticulate, lower ones with black-glandular-ciliate auricles. Flowers 20–25 mm in diam., stellate; buds broadly ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 5, equal, very shortly united, 5–6 × 1–1.5 mm, linear-lanceolate, acute, glandular-ciliate; veins 1–3, unbranched, becoming prominent in fruit; laminar glands black, shortly striiform to mostly punctiform; marginal glands black, on cilia. Petals 5, bright? yellow, sometimes tinged red dorsally, 13–15 × 4.5–5 mm, oblong-oblanceolate, rounded to eroded-denticulate; laminar glands black, punctiform, scattered but mostly distal; marginal glands black, dense, distal, sessile or on cilia. Stamens c. 65–80, longest 9–11 mm, c. 0.7 × petals. Ovary 3–4 × 1.5–2 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid; styles 6–8 mm, c. 2 × ovary. Capsule 7-8 × 3.5–4 mm, narrowly ovoid; valves with globose amber vesicles, larger at margins. Seeds not seen.
2n = 14 (Reynaud, 1980; Strid & Franzén, 1981).
Woods, fallows and rocky slopes, on limestone or schist; 0–1100 m.
Western Balkan Peninsula from Croatia (Pula) to Greece (Tymphrestos), southeast Italy.
Hypericum spruneri is a distinct species related to 9. H. rochelii and 11. H. richeri. It is a plant of the eastern Adriatic lowlands and extreme SE. Italy, penetrating far inland only in Greece, where it reaches 1110 m on the slopes of Mt. Tymphrestos in the southern Pindhos Mountains. It can be recognised by the narrow leaves, narrow sepals with mainly punctiform laminar glands, and round amber vesicular capsule glands. Records from Turkey (Gelibolu area) are an error for H. aucheri (cf. Robson, 1967b).