Hypericum pulchrum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb, (0.03–)0.1–0.9 m tall, glabrous, erect to decumbent from slender taproot, not rooting or rarely procumbent and rooting (f. procumbens), sometimes budding from roots, usually with short branches at all nodes. Stems 2-lined to subterete, often reddish, eglandular; internodes (5–)15–90 mm, exceeding leaves. Leaves (main stem) sessile, glaucous beneath, subcoriaceous; lamina 6–20 × 3.5–13 mm, triangular-ovate to broadly ovate, apex rounded, margin recurved, base cordate-amplexicaul to truncate (branch leaves smaller, ovate to oblong, truncate and sessile to broadly cuneate and up to 0.2 mm petiolate), with 4–5 pairs of lateral veins from near base; laminar glands small, punctiform, dense, mostly peripheral, without apical black gland; inframarginal glands pale spaced. Inflorescence 1–c. 35 –flowered, from up to 7 nodes, strictly cylindric to narrowly and laxly pyramidal, with lateral cymules 1–5-flowered, without or with up to 4 pairs of flowering branches below; bracts and bracteoles ovate to elliptic, entire. Flowers 10–20 mm in diam., petals erect after flowering; buds ellipsoid-subglobose. Sepals unequal to subequal, up to 1/3 united, not imbricate, 3–3.5 × 1–2 mm, obovate-spathulate to elliptic or oblong, obtuse to rounded; veins 5(–7), not prominent; margin with globose black glands, sessile or subsessile; laminar glands pale, linear or distally punctiform. Petals chrome yellow or rarely pale yellow to cream, tinged red, 8–9 × (2–)3–4 mm, 2.5–3 × sepals, oblong-elliptic; marginal glands black, distal, sessile or on short cilia, and one larger apical, sessile or immersed; laminar glands pale, punctiform, few. Stamens 20–30, longest 7–8 mm; filaments yellow; anthers orange to reddish-pink. Ovary 2.5 × 1.5 mm, ovoid-pyramidal; styles 3.5–4 mm, 1.4–1.6 × ovary. Capsule 6–9 × 3.5–5 mm, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid. Seeds reddish-brown, 0.8–1 mm long; testa rugulose.
2n = 18 (Böcher, 1940; Robson, 1956); n = 9 (Chattaway, 1926).
Heaths and open woods on acidic to neutral, fairly dry, sandy or peaty soils; 0–600 m (in Spain).
Western Europe: Faeroe Islands, southwestern Norway, southern Sweden, Denmark and northwest of a line through western Germany, northwest Switzerland, southern France, northern Spain and central Portugal, with outlying stations in north and southwest Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia; extinct ? in Italy.
Hypericum pulchrum is clearly related to (derived from?) 2. H. venustum, as it is morphologically most similar to the westernmost form of that Turkish species. The outlying eastern European populations indicate that it has had an extended range further east in the past.
Hypericum pulchrum shows no great variation trends. A form with paler yellow or cream petals (f. pallidum Rouy) has occasionally been recorded; and dwarf plants with prostrate to procumbent, 1–3-flowered stems, which have been named var. procumbens (Rostrup) Beeby, occur in the Faeröes, the Shetlands, Orkney, Caithness, western Ross, the Outer Hebrides and Clare and Achill Islands off western Ireland. The procumbent to prostrate habit and 1–3-flowered inflorescence are both maintained in cultivation. Beeby (1887) and Böcher (1940) both showed that it has the same chromosome number (2n = 18) as the typical form. It would therefore appear to be an ecotype but not to warrant recognition taxonomically.