Hypericum ellipticum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb somewhat woody at base, 0.11-0.3(-0.5) m tall, erect from creeping rhizomatous base, unbranched or occasionally branched below. Stems red-brown, 4-lined, subancipitous above. Leaves sessile, 11-35 x 3-13 mm, rather broadly to narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, margin plane to subrevolute, paler but not always glaucous beneath, lower ones eventually deciduous above base, apex rounded, base cuneate to shallowly cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 5-7 pairs of main laterals with secondaries almost equally strong and rather dense tertiary reticulation, only midrib prominent; laminar glands rather dense, obscure in direct light, marginal glands dense. Inflorescence ( l-)3-l5-flowered, regularly dichasial, sometimes with flowering branches from 1-2 nodes below, corymbiform; pedicels 1-2 mm long; bracts 4-6(-9) mm, narrowly oblong to linear-lanceolate. Flowers 12-15 mm in diam., buds ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 5(4), 6-7 x 2-3 mm, persistent, somewhat unequal, oblanceolate, obtuse to rounded, margin plane, basal veins 3, branched. Petals 5(4), pale? yellow, sometimes tinged red, 6-8 x 3.5-1 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, apiculus obsolete or absent. Stamens c. 70-95, longest 4-6 mm, c. 0.7 x petals, persistent. Ovary 3-merous, (0.8-)1.5-3.5 x 1-1.7 mm, narrowly ovoid, acute, 1-locular with intruding placentae; styles 3, 1.5-3 mm, 0.8-1 x ovary, remaining appressed in fruit. Capsule 47 x 3.5-5 mm, ellipsoid to globose, obtuse to rounded. Seeds reddish brown, 0.6-0.7 mm long, carinate; testa scalariform-reticulate.
2n = 18 (Gillett, 1975, 'c. 18';n = 9, Hoar & Haertl, 1932), 1 6 ( Love & Love, 1982).
Stream, lake and pond margins, river flats, wet meadows and swamps; lowland to c. 300 m
Canada (south-western Ontario to southern Newfoundland, extinct further west? - see Richardson's isotype from 'Saskatchewan'), U.S.A. (Minnesota to Maine and south to extreme north-eastern Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and northern Delaware).
H. ellipticum is related to H. sphaerocarpum but differs from it inter alia by the shorter herbaceous rhizomatous habit, shorter leaves and smaller seeds. A submerged aquatic form with elongate simple stems and shorter, ovate to orbicular leaves (f. submersum Fassett) and one with the axillary branches grown out after fertilisation (f. foliosum Marie-Victorin) seem scarcely worth recognising.