Hypericum ericoides (Nomenclature)
Dwarf shrub, 0.02–0.2 m tall, with stems slender, erect, branching strictly from stout woody rooting and branching rootstock, without axillary shoots. Stems 4-lined, eglandular; internodes 1–5 mm, shorter than leaves to exceeding them below inflorescence. Leaves 4-verticillate, densely imbricate, sessile, deciduous, papillose above, wholly glaucous, 1–5(–6.5) × 0.5–0.8 mm, linear to narrowly triangular-lanceolate, apex mucronulate to apiculate, margin revolute, base rounded, 1-veined; laminar glands pale, scattered, sometimes sunken, punctiform; intramarginal glands not seen. Inflorescence 1–16-flowered from 1–3 nodes, rather dense, elongating in fruit, subcorymbiform, 5–15 mm long, sometimes with subsidiary branches from 1–2 nodes below; bracts and bracteoles whorled below, upper ones spiral, narrowly triangular-lanceolate, long-curved-acuminate, with black-glandular-ciliate auricles, margin plane, eglandular or with 1–2 sessile black glands towards base, apex with small pale or reddish gland. Flowers c. 8–10 mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid, obtuse. Sepals equal, free, not or scarcely imbricate, (1.5–)2–3(–4) × 0.8–1.3 mm, c. 2 × sepals, lanceolate to narrowly or broadly elliptic or obovate, acuminate to obtuse; veins 3, prominent; margin almost entire to regularly black-glandular with glands sessile or on denticles or cilia, obconic to globose; laminar glands pale, linear, distally interrupted. Petals yellow, not tinged red, persistent, 4–7 × 1.5–2.5 mm, oblong-elliptic; marginal glands few, small, black, apical, on cilia; laminar glands pale, linear to striiform. Stamens 30–35, longest 3–6 mm, persistent. Ovary c. 1–2.5 × 0.5–1.5 mm, ovoid to ovoid-conic; styles 3–3.5 mm, 1.5–3 × ovary. Capsule 2–4 × 2–3 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid; valves narrowly longitudinally vittate. Seeds yellow-brown, 0.7–1.2 mm long, curved, papillose?
Fissures in limestone or dolomitic rocks; 200–2000 m.
Southeastern Spain, Tunisia, northeastern Morocco.
Hypericum ericoides seems at first to be a direct derivative of 2. H. coris in which there has been a diminution in size of parts and a shortening of internodes leading to a crowding of leaves. The wholly vittate capsule valves, however, indicate that the relationship is indirect.
The status of the two isolated African populations has proved difficult to assess. Cosson’s minimal description of “H. roberti Cosson, inédit” from Tunisia “probablement à Tebessa” was clearly based on Robert 4800 from “Ferania”(cited above); and Ramos (1993) recognised it as a species distinct from H. ericoides and cited a record from Almería as well as the Tunisian reference (Battandier & Trabut, 1888). Comparison of his descriptions of the two ‘species’, however, shows that they differ essentially only in the colour of the dark glands – black in ericoides and reddish in robertii. There is indeed a tendency for the dark glands in some Spanish specimens of H. ericoides to be reddish; but this is only a tendency indicating that the density of hypericin varies in this species. The isotype of H. robertii in BM has normally black glands, so that there would appear to be no grounds for recognising it as a distinct taxon. Also, the characters by which Maire & Wilczek (1931) distinguished their Moroccan plant as a distinct subspecies (sepals obovate, rounded and sulcate, sepal and bract marginal glands subsessile, and capsule vittae slender) all occur elsewhere in the species, though not necessarily in one plant. I have therefore decided to recognise no infraspecific taxa in this species.