Hypericum scabrum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb, (0.04–)0.1–0.45(–0.6) m tall, glabrous, erect or decumbent from often woody taproot, not rooting, branching at base and often below inflorescence, with sterile shoots spreading to ascending. Stems scabrid with simple red-tipped glandular emergences, especially towards base, or rarely almost or wholly eglandular and smooth; internodes 1–5 mm, exceeding leaves. Leaves c. 0.3 mm petiolate, spreading, rarely glaucous; lamina (main stem) 7–20(–27) × 1.5–7 mm, lanceolate to linear, apex rounded to mucronate or uncinate, margin sometimes revolute, base cuneate, 1-veined with (1)2 near-basal main lateral branches, with laminar glands pale, numerous and small to few and large, marginal glands numerous, small, sometimes prominent (‘margin eroded’); leaves (axillary and sterile shoots) smaller, narrower, with margins revolute. Inflorescence ∞–5(1)-flowered, corymbiform to capitate, 5–80(–110) mm long, with lateral cymules 2–c. 13-flowered, all or mostly monochasial, without flowering branches below; bracts and bracteoles oblong to linear, entire to eroded or with black glands near apex. Flowers 5–16 mm in diam., with petals spreading; buds globose to shortly cylindric, rounded. Sepals equal, 1/3–2/3 united, not imbricate, 1–2.5 × 0.7–1.2 mm, oblong, rounded; veins 3, sometimes prominent; margin glandular-denticulate to -ciliate or eglandular-ciliate to subentire, with black glands irregular, ellipsoid to globose, or absent; laminar glands pale, in 2 lines. Petals bright or golden yellow, not red-tinged, (3)5–8 × (1)2–3(–5) mm, c. 2–3 × sepals, oblanceolate to obovate, long-unguiculate, rounded, entire, with marginal black glands distal or rarely absent; laminar glands pale, punctiform only or some striiform. Stamens 25–c. 45, longest 4–8 mm; filaments not red-tinged. Ovary 1–3 × 1–1.5 mm, narrowly ovoid-acuminate, not or scarcely rostrate; styles 2–5 mm, 1.7–2 × ovary. Capsule (3)4–8 × 2.5–5 mm, ovoid-acuminate, not or scarcely rostrate; lateral vittae rarely swollen. Seeds dark brown, 1.5–2 mm long.
2n = 24 (Reynaud, 1973), 28 (Reynaud, 1980); n = 24 (Ghaffari, 1988).
Rocky, sandy or marly slopes in open woodland or steppe, 825–3900 m.
Palestine?, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Kirghizia, Kazakhstan, China (Xinjiang, Altai).
Hypericum scabrum is the most abundant and one of the most widespread species in Sect. Hirtella. It is closely related to 18. H. scabroides, from which it differs in having glabrous stems and leaves; but the stems are almost always rough, being covered with glandular emergences. In the Elazig – Tunceli area, however, there is a form with smooth eglandular stems, linear uncinate-tipped leaves and a relatively narrow, small-flowered inflorescence, which has been distinguished as var. laeve Boiss. & Noé. But correlation of these characters breaks down further west, resulting in intermediate forms, e.g. subsp. sublaeve Freyn & Bornm. (Yozgat) and var. laevicaule Stapf (Ankara). To the north and east of Tunceli there are records of a small-flowered form with rough stems (var. micranthum Boiss.) from Gümüşane and Nakhchivan. This pattern of variation does not indicate that any of these infraspecific taxa warrants recognition; and other named variants appear to be even less worthy of recognition: var. hyssopifolium (Spach) Boiss. (scattered broad-leaved forms from Turkey and Iran) and var. leiocalyx Kuntze (forms with an eglandular calyx).
For discussion of Hypericum scabrum var. laeve Boiss. & Noé typification, see Robson (1967a).