Hypericum cardiophyllum (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.12-0.9 m tall, erect, bushy, rounded, with branches erect to ascending. Stems 2-lined and green when young; cortex loosening and becoming whitish in second year, then bark pale grey. Leaves sessile; lamina (15-)20-45 x 10-30 mm, oblong or elliptic to ovate or lanceolate, almost concolorous, midrib scarcely prominent, glaucous especially beneath, thinly coriaceous, deciduous before (?) growth of new shoots; apex obtuse to rounded, base truncate to cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 5-6 pairs of laterals, scarcely distinct from tertiary reticulation. Inflorescence c. 1 0-40-flowered from 3(-5) nodes, corymbiform to broadly hemispherical; pedicels 2-3 mm; bracteoles triangular-subulate, margin entire. Flowers c. 16-20 mm in diam.; buds elliptic, obtuse. Sepals 2-4 x 0.9-2 mm, subequal, free, triangular-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acute to subacute or sometimes rounded, entire, glands submarginal; veins 5, not prominent. Petals bright yellow, not tinged red, 9-12 x (2.5-)5-7 mm, 3-4.5 x sepals, obovate to elliptic, rounded; laminar glands striiform to punctiform. Stamens 20-30, longest 9-12 mm, about equalling petals. Ovary c. 1.5-2 x 1-1.5 mm, ovoid; styles c. 9-1 1 mm long, c. 4 x ovary, widely spreading; stigmas narrow. Capsule 4.5 x 2.5-3.5 mm, very narrowly ovoid to cylindric, truncate, with persistent horn-like style bases, exceeding sepals. Seeds yellowish brown, c. 1 .2 mm long.
Open calcareous rocks; 500-1000 m.
Turkey (Gaziantep), Syria (Latakia)
The truncate to cordate leaf-base and entire acute sepals of H. cardiophyllum distinguish it from other species in sect. Arthrophyllum. The flowers are somewhat smaller and more crowded than those of H. rupestre, and it lacks the dark glands found in that species.
Haussknecht collected this species in two localities, but it is not clear from which the type came; perhaps specimens from both localities were mounted. He subsequently distributed exsiccatae of both collections: 'Ad rupes Assy prope Aintab' (Haussknecht 603) and 'In cacumine Montis Nar Facub, prope Orfa' (Haussknecht 663). These may be duplicates of the lectotype.