Hypericum canariense L.

Shrub or tree 1-4 m tall, erect, bushy, with branches erect or ascending. Stems green to pale reddish brown, 4-lined when young, soon 2-lined, eventually terete, internodes shorter than leaves; bark becoming whitish then pale grey. Leaves sessile; lamina 20-70 x 5-15 mm, narrowly elliptic to narrowly elliptic-oblong, the upper often broader, plane, paler beneath with midrib prominent, not glaucous, chartaceous, deciduous shortly before and during growth of new shoots; apex acute to apiculate-obtuse or rarely rounded, base narrowly cuneate to subangustate; venation: c. 8-1 2 laterals forming looped intramarginal vein, sometimes with subsidiary laterals, densely reticulate towards margins, tertiary venation dense and obscure; laminar glands dense. Inflorescence up to c. 30-flowered from up to 5 nodes, sometimes with flowering branches from up to 7 lower nodes immediately below or separated by sterile zone, the whole broadly rounded-pyramidal to broadly cylindric; pedicels 4-10 mm; bracteoles reduced foliar to triangular-subulate. Flowers 20-25(-37) mm in diam.; buds narrowly ovoid to narrowly ellip- soid, acute to subacuminate. Sepals 3-4.5 x 1-2.2 mm, unequal, varying from lanceolate, acute and basally united to oblong or oblong-spathulate, rounded and c. 0.5 united, veins branched distally, laminar glands basally linear, distally punctiform. Petals bright 135 yellow, not tinged red, 12-17 x 5-7 mm, c. 4 x sepals, oblanceolate- unguiculate, cochleariform, rounded. Stamens 10-13 mm long, c. 0.7-0.8 x petals. Ovary 3-4 x 1 .5-2 mm, ellipsoid; styles 8-14 mm, 2.7-4.7 x ovary, basally separated and widely spreading-incurved. Capsule (9-)10-12 x 7-8 mm, pyramidal-ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, truncate to retuse, with horn-like persistent style bases, exceeding sepals. Seeds yellowish brown, 1.5-2 mm long; testa linear-reticulate to linear-foveolate (cf. Reynaud, 1991, f. 1, 3-6). 2n = 40 (Larsen, 1962; Borgen, 1969; Reynaud, 1986; Dalgaard, 1991).