Hypericum rupestre (Nomenclature)
Shrub up to c. 0.3 m(?) tall, erect, bushy rounded, with branches. erect or tortuous. Stems 4-lined and green when young; cortex becoming red-brown and flattened in second year, then bark grey. Leaves sessile; lamina 17-45 x 9-15 mm, lanceolate to elliptic or suborbicular, paler beneath, midrib prominent proximally below, glaucous beneath, rigidly coriaceous, deciduous during second year; apex obtuse to rounded or (the lower) retuse, base broadly cuneate to subattenuate; venation: c. 8-12 pairs of laterals, scarcely distinct from tertiary reticulation. Inflorescence 9-16-flowered from (1)2(3) nodes, subcorymbiform; pedicels 2.5-6 mm; bracteoles triangular- subulate, margin black-glandular-ciliate. Flowers c. 20-25 mm in diam.; buds elliptic, rounded. Sepals 2-3 x 0.7-1.2 mm, unequal to subequal, 0.4-0.5 united, ovate to oblong-lanceolate or broadly elliptic, subacute to rounded, margin distally or wholly with sessile black glands; veins 5-7, subprominent. Petals bright yellow, not red- tinged, 10-14 x c. 5-7 mm, c. 5 x sepals, obovate to oblanceolate, asymmetrically retuse; laminar glands linear. Stamens 30-40, longest c. 9-13 mm, almost equalling petals. Ovary c. 3 x 1.5 mm, ellipsoid; styles c. 10-12 mm long, 3-4 x ovary, widely curved- ascending; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule c. 1 mm long, exceeding sepals, narrowly ovoid. Seeds not seen.
Limestone cliffs; 150m.
Turkey (Iҫel).
Exsiccatae of Aucher 873 were labelled 'Syria' in error. H. rupestre appears to be restricted to a small area in vilayet Iҫel, where it is rare.
H. rupestre would seem to be the nearest species morphologically in sect. Arthrophyllum to the small-leaved Ethiopian form of H. roeperianum, by which it is ‘linked’ to Sect. Campylosporus.
Jaubert & Spach described and illustrated two varieties without attributing their cited specimens to them. The Kew syntypes of both collections include twigs with the upper leaves elliptic ('ovalifolia') and the lower ones suborbicular ('rotundifolia').