Hypericum fieriense (Nomenclature)
Shrub c. 1 m tall, much branched, flat-topped, with branches ascending, dark glands absent. Stems fawn-puberulous, soon regularly 4-lined; cortex green?; bark finely ribbed-striate. Leaves opposite, the pairs initially united at base, petiolate, with petiole 4-6 mm long, densely to rather sparsely fawn-puberulous with scattered stellate hairs; lamina 10-17 x 7-12 mm, triangular-ovate to oblong-ovate, glabrous above, paler and densely fawn-puberulous beneath with scattered, often tufted villous hairs, midrib and laterals prominent beneath and impressed above, coriaceous; apex subobtuse to rounded, margin inrolled, base broadly cuneate to shortly angustate or truncate; venation: 4-5 pairs of laterals, closed or lower 1-2 pairs free, without or with 1-3 cross-veins distally; laminar glands dense, prominent on upper surface, intramarginal glands dense. Inflores- cence 3-5-flowered, from 1-2 distant or close nodes, the inflorescence thus more or less subumbellate; pedicels 8-9 mm, bracts and bracteoles linear. Flowers 9-10 mm in diam.; buds narrowly ovoid, acute. Sepals in fruit recurved, 4-5 x c. 1.5 mm, linear-lanceolate, acute, margin entire, coriaceous; veins c. 7, slightly prominent; laminar glands linear, all pale. Petals incomplete in specimen seen. Stamens c. 60?, with filaments (in each fascicle) united above base. Ovary not seen. Capsule 6-7.5 x 4.5-6 mm, pyramidal-ovoid, truncate, with persistent divergent horn-like style bases, coriaceous, with valves finely longitudinally vittate, exceeding sepals. Seeds dark brown, c. 1.1 mm long (immature?); testa foveolate-reticulate.
'Low scrub among Dracaena cinnabari trees'; 1350 m.
Socotra (Hagghiher Mts).
This strikingly distinct species is known from only the above collection. It is clearly related to the other Socotran low shrubs, H. scopulorum and H. tortuosum, bul differs from them inter alia in leaf shape and inflorescence form and, particularly, in the presence of an indumentum on young vegetative parts and the lower surface of the leaves.