Hypericum spectabile (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb, 0.35–0.6 m tall, glabrous, erect from taproot or with creeping and rooting base, branching at base and from upper stem nodes, sterile shoots sometimes present. Stems eglandular; internodes 15–40 mm, equalling or shorter than leaves. Leaves sessile, free or ± perfoliate, spreading, glaucous; lamina (main stem) 20–45 × 12–25(30) mm, triangular-ovate to semicircular, apex obtuse to rounded, margin plane, base cordate-amplexicaul, with 4–5 main laterals from base and/or lower half of midrib, with laminar glands pale, numerous, small, marginal glands absent; lamina (sterile and axillary shoots) linear, revolute, crowded, often mucronate. Inflorescence ∞-flowered, pyramidal, 100–150 mm long, with lateral cymules 2–8-flowered, mostly monochasial, without lower branches; bracts and bracteoles ovate-triangular to linear, entire, uppermost with margin eroded. Flowers 20–25 mm in diam., with petals becoming deflexed; buds globose. Sepals equal, ⅓ united, 3–5 × 1–2 mm, oblong, obtuse or rarely acute; veins 3, not prominent; margin ± regularly glandular-ciliate, glands black, obconic; laminar glands few, pale or absent. Petals “deep gold”, sometimes red-veined, 9–14 × 7–8 mm, 3–3.5 × sepals, obovate, long-unguiculate, rounded, with margin irregularly black-glandular-ciliate; laminar glands pale, mostly distal, punctiform. Stamens c. 60, longest 7–12 mm, filaments reddish. Ovary c. 4 × 2 mm, narrowly ovoid, acuminate; styles 6–7 mm, c. 1.5 × o v a r y . Capsule 7 –9 × 4–5 mm, ovoid-subglobose, rostrate; vittae narrow. Seeds reddish-brown, c. 2 mm long.
Field margins and fallow soil; 570–1280 m.
South and east Turkey mainly in the ‘Anatolian diagonal’ (Davis, 1965: 25), north Syria.
Hypericum spectabile can be distinguished from H. amblysepalum by its triangular-ovate or semicircular leaves, which are sometimes united at the base. There is an eastward morphocline from free triangular leaves in Gaziantep and Maraş (H. spectabile sensu stricto) to semicircular perfoliate leaves in Siirt (H. sintenisii), which prevents the recognition of the latter as a distinct species even though its locality is outside the ‘Anatolian diagonal’.