Hypericum hedgei (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb, 0.38–0.44 m tall, glabrous, erect, not rooting, branching at base then not below inflorescence, with sterile shoots erect. Stems not glaucous, with numerous slightly prominent amber glands throughout; internodes 17–30 mm, shorter than leaves. Leaves sessile, ascending, not glaucous; lamina (main stem) 15–27 × 1.8–2.7 mm, linear, apex rounded, margin revolute, base narrowly cuneate, 1-veined or with 1–2 pairs of lateral branches, with laminar glands pale, rather large, numerous and occasionally one large, subapical, visible only below, marginal glands dense; lamina (axillary and sterile shoots) smaller, narrower, otherwise similar. Inflorescence ∞-flowered, from 5–6 nodes, cylindric, rather lax, 140–190 mm long, with lateral cymules (1)3–5-flowered, without flowering branches below; bracts and bracteoles narrowly oblong to linear, entire. Flowers c. 25 mm in diam., with petals spreading? after flowering; buds globose. Sepals unequal to subequal, basally united, not imbricate, 3–4 × 1–2 mm, narrowly spathulate to oblong, acute or subacute to rounded; veins 3–5; margin distally glandular-denticulate with glands black, ellipsoid to cylindric; laminar glands pale, linear. Petals bright? yellow, not red-tinged, 11–12 × 5–6 mm, c. 4 × sepals, obovate, unguiculate, rounded, distally black-glandular-denticulate; laminar glands pale, few, striiform to punctiform. Stamens c. 32, longest c. 9 mm; filaments not red-tinged. Ovary 3–4 × 2–2.5 mm, narrowly ovoid-acuminate; styles 4– 4.5 mm, c. 1–1.3 × ovary. Capsule and seeds not seen.
Eroded shaley slopes in Pinus brutia open woodland, 900 m.
South-central Turkey.
This collection was identified by me in 1966 as H. lydium. On reviewing it for this work, however, I noted some characters atypical of that species. Some leaves have a large pale subapical gland beneath; the inflorescence is relatively broad; and the sepals are unequal, relatively broader, glandless along the often narrower proximal margin; and sometimes obtuse to rounded. These characters, especially the subapical leaf gland, all indicate that H. hedgei is intermediate between 16. H. lydium and 15. H. retusum, possibly ancestral to both species.