Hypericum crux-andreae (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.1-1.0(-1.35) m tall, erect to suberect or rarely decumbent and rooting at base, unbranched or rarely sparsely branched below inflorescence (at least until fruiting), branches suberect. Stems becoming red-brown, 2-4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon narrowly 2-winged; cortex exfoliating in thin strips or flakes; bark thin, reddish brown, not corky. Leaves sessile, ascending to spreading, (12-)18-30(-36) x (6-)8-12(-16) mm, oblong to elliptic or rarely obovate to oblanceolate or triangular-ovate, margin plane to subrecurved, paler beneath, sometimes slightly glaucous on both sides, coriaceous, eventually deciduous at basal articulation, apex rounded to obtuse, base rounded to truncate or rarely slightly cordate-amplexicaul; venation: up to 3 pairs of laterals sometimes visible; laminar glands dense. Inflorescence l-3(-7)-flowered from 1-4 nodes, sometimes with flowering branches from up to 4 nodes below, the whole narrowly cylindric to narrowly pyramidal or occasionally with one pair of pseudo-dichotomous branches; pedicels 3-5 mm long; bracts foliar; bracteoles triangular-lanceolate. Flowers 20-30 mm in diam.; buds compressed-subglobose. Sepals 4, markedly unequal, not? enlarging in fruit; outer 9-17(-20) x 9-14(-18) mm, broadly ovate to circular, apiculate to obtuse or rounded, base cordate, basal veins (3)5-7, midrib often branched; inner 7-14 x 2-3(-4) mm, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, acute to subacute, basal veins 3(-5), midrib sometimes branched. Petals 4, bright yellow, 11-18 x 6-10(-12) mm, c. 0.5-1.2 x outer sepals, obovate, with apiculus lateral, acute. Stamens 80- 100, longest 7-8 mm, 0.45- 0.65 x petals. Ovary 3(4)-merous, (3.5-)4-5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, narrowly ellipsoid-ovoid, acute, placentation parietal; styles 3(4), (1-)1.5-2. 5 mm, 0.35-0.5 x ovary, divergent. Capsule 7-9(-10) x 5-6.5 mm, narrowly ellipsoid-ovoid, obtuse (or apiculate fide Small), scarcely lobed. Seeds blackish brown, 0.8 mm long, ecarinate; testa shallowly scalariform.
2n = 18 (n = 9, Adams in Robson & Adams, 1968).
Moist to dry pine savannahs and flatwoods, meadows, bogs, marshes, ditches, shores of ponds and lakes, on sandy soil; lowland.
U.S.A. (eastern Texas and south-eastern Oklahoma to Florida and northwest to New York (Long Island), New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania).
H. crux-andreae, with its tetramerous perianth whorls and very unequal sepals, is directly related to 1. H.frondosum, in which the sepals are very unequal and both perianth whorls are quite often tetramerous. It differs from that species in having (as well as the constantly tetramerous perianth) sessile leaves, a lower habit and smaller flowers at more stem nodes. Adams (1957) showed that Chapman's Ascyrum cuneifolium (A. stans var. obovatum Chapm. ex Torrey & Gray) cannot be separated from typical H. crux-andreae (=A. stans). The low, several-stemmed form with cuneate leaves, longer-pedunculate flowers and shorter sepals varies in the direction of 28. H. suffruticosum, but there is no overlap in variation in these taxa.