Hypericum peplidifolium (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb, wiry or rarely woody, up to 0.6(-0.9) m tall but often much less, 0.1-0.9 m in diam., tufted, with branches ascending to prostrate, sometimes rooting at proximal nodes or budding from horizontal roots, rather slender. Stems wholly terete or sometimes slightly 2-lined above, eglandular or (in S. of range) black-gland-dotted. Leaves with petiole 0.5-1.5 mm long; lamina 3-26 x 2-20 mm, ovate to elliptic or obovate or rarely suborbicular, spreading; apex rounded to obtuse, margin plane, base rounded to cuneate; venation: 2-3 pairs of main lateral veins, branching to form rather inconspicuous tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale and sometimes a few black, punctiform; intramarginal glands dense, black. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal, often with 1 or 2 flowering branches from uppermost 1 (2) nodes, branching rarely repeatedly pseudo-dichotomous; pedicels 4-40 mm long, reflexed in fruit. Flowers 8-15 mm in diam.; buds ovoid to ellipsoid, obtuse. Sepals 4-5 x 3-4 mm, imbricate, very unequal, the inner ones narrower, obovate to elliptic or oblong or lanceolate, obtuse or apiculate to rounded, entire; veins 3, branching and reticulating; laminar glands pale and occasionally some black, punctiform; inframarginal glands dense, all or mostly black. Petals bright to primrose yellow, often tinged red, 7-8(-14) x 2-4 mm, c. 1.7 x sepals, obovate; laminar glands pale or very rarely also black; marginal glands round most of margin, black, sometimes also submarginal. Stamens obscurely 3(4-5)-fascicled or irregular, 20-40(-60), longest 5-6 mm, c. 0.75 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 2.4-3 x 1.4-1.9 mm, ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, acute to obtuse; styles 5(4), 2.5-4 mm long, c. 1-1.3 x ovary, divergent; stigmas scarcely capitate; placentae 5(4), axile. 'Capsule' bacciform, indehiscent, 6-11 x 5-9 mm, c. 2 x sepals, broadly ovoid to subglobose, smooth. Seeds yellowish brown, 0.6-0.8(-1) mm, not carinate; testa finely reticulate-scalariform. 2n = 16(1. &O. Hedberg, 1977).
Marshes, swamps, streamsides, roadsides, pastures, temporary leys and abandoned cultivation in upland and moorland grassland; 1100-3750 m (W., NE and E. tropical Africa), 600-2350 m (S. tropical Africa).
Cameroon, Fernando Poo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan Republic, Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Angola.
H. peplidifolium is variable in habit and in size of parts, but none of the named infraspecific taxa is worthy of recognition. The tallest plants with rather woody, ascending stems occur in the southern part of its area (Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique), and the tendency towards 4 rather than 5 styles is greater there, too. Indeed, Mendonҫa 2257 (Mozambique, Zambezia) varies towards H. natalense, whereas Brain 6917 (Zimbabwe) has 4 styles and varies towards H. wilmsii. In general, however, the bacciform fruit on reflexed pedicels will distinguish H. peplidifolium from its nearest relatives. Just as H. wilmsii has eglandular stems in South Africa and black-gland-dotted stems in Zimbabwe, so H. peplidifolium has black-gland-dotted stems in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and eglandular stems elsewhere. A similar character change is found in H. aethiopicum (sect. 27. Adenosepalum, p. xxx). The significance of this concentration of gland-dotted stems in the Zimbabwe-Transvaal region is unclear to me.