Hypericum nudiflorum (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.5-2 m tall, erect, usually loosely branched, with branches ascending. Stems narrowly 4-winged at first, eventually terete, subherbaceous above, becoming brown and woody at base; cortex exfoliating in strips; bark brown. Leaves pale green, subsessile or shortly and broadly petiolate (to 2 mm long); lamina 30-70 x 7-25 mm, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic to linear-oblong, with margin plane and very narrowly pellucid, not or rarely slightly glaucous, thinly chartaceous, deciduous at lamina base, apex obtuse to rounded, base cuneate to subcordate; venation: c. 6 pairs main laterals and some- times intermediates, tertiary reticulation obscure; only midrib prominent; laminar glands dense. Inflorescence 1-c. 45-flowered, without accessory flowers, sometimes with 1-7(-c. 40)-flowered dichasia from 1-3 nodes below, the whole corymbiform or some- times rounded-pyramidal; pedicels 1.5-4 mm long; bracts c. 1.5-3 mm long, triangular-subulate. Flowers 15-20 mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 5, 2-5 x 1-1.5 mm, unequal to subequal, deciduous, oblanceolate-spathulate or oblong-elliptic to narrowly triangular, obtuse to acute, margins plane, basal veins 3, unbranched. Petals 5, pale or coppery yellow, 6-8 x 3-4 mm, 2.5-3 x sepals, oblanceolate-oblong to elliptic-oblong, with apiculus lateral, acute, short. Stamens c. 80, longest 4-5 mm, 0.7-0.8 x petals, deciduous. Ovary 3(4)-merous, c. 3 x 1 mm, very narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, acute, placentation parietal; styles 3(4), c. 3 mm long, about equalling ovary, remaining appressed in fruit. Capsule 3.5-7 x 3-5 mm, broadly ellipsoid to ovoid-globose, acute. Seeds 1.5-2 mm long, black, carinate, conspicuously curved (fide Adams, 1959 ); testa scalariform-reticulate.
2n = 18 (n = 9, Hoar & Haertl, 1932).
Stream banks, moist woodland (deciduous and pinelands) and swamps, on sand; lowland and plateau (to c. 1000 m).
U.S.A. (Virginia to E. Tennessee, south to NW Florida and west to SE Louisiana and Texas).
Correll & Johnston (1970) record H. nudiflorum from eastern Texas as well as H. apocynifolium; but I have seen no specimens from there, and Adams (1962) did not include Texas in the distribution of this species. He likewise failed to record it from Louisiana, although there are early-nineteenth-century specimens from there, which suggests that it may now be extinct in that state.
H. nudiflorum is morphologically intermediate between H. apocynifolium and H. cistifolium. For differentia see these species.
Rehder (1911) observed pistillody in H. nudiflorum. There were c. 3-10 sterile structures per flower, situated between pistil and stamens and mostly boat-shaped. They differed in size and bore ovules, rarely except the upper ones. Stamen tissue was often present, but true anthers were rare.