Hypericum annulatum Moris

Perennial herb 0.2-0.75 m tall, wholly erect or shortly decumbent but not rooting at base, with woody taproot, usually few-stemmed, unbranched below inflorescence or sometimes with short axillary shoots, wholly glabrous or usually puberulous to densely shortly whitish-pubescent on stems below inflorescence and on both leaf surfaces. Stems green to reddish, terete; internodes all shorter than leaves or upper exceeding them, eglandular or sparsely (along 'lines') to densely black-gland-dotted or shortly black-gland- streaked. Leaves sessile; lamina (5-)10-55 x (3-)5-32 mm, narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic or lanceolate or rather broadly ovate, paler beneath, thinly chartaceous, not glaucous, glabrous to densely pubescent on both sides, plane, spreading; apex acute to rounded, margin entire, base rounded to truncate or subcordate; venation: (3)4-5 pairs of laterals curved-ascending from lower 0.2-0.5 of midrib, tertiary reticulation dense, not prominent; laminar glands all pale or occasionally some black, dense, unequal; intramarginal glands black, dense but irregular to rather sparse. Inflorescence 5-c. 120-flowered from up to 4 nodes, without or very rarely with 1-2 flowering branches from next lower node, pyramidal or shortly cylindric to corymbiform, lower nodes not distinct, the partial inflorescences nearly always lax-flowered when mature; pedicels 1-4 mm; bracts and bracteoles linear, black-glandular-ciliate, densely glandular-auriculate. Flowers 15-25 mm in diam.; buds cylindric- ellipsoid, obtuse. Sepals (4-)5-6(-8) x 1-1.5 mm, subequal, free or almost so, narrowly oblong to narrowly lanceolate, acute or very rarely subacute, with margin long- to short-glandular-ciliate; veins 5 or 3 with strong near-basal outer branch from each lateral, these sometimes united (commissural) at base; laminar glands all pale to all black, linear at base or all striiform to punctiform; marginal glands black, flat-topped. Petals pale (?) to golden yellow, sometimes veined or tinged red, (8-)10-13(-15) x (2.5-)3-3.5 mm, c. 2 x sepals, oblong-lanceolate, rounded, apiculus absent; laminar glands pale and/or black, scattered; marginal glands absent. Stamens c. 20-40, longest (7.5-)9-10 mm, 0.65-0.8 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 2-3 x 1-2 mm, narrowly ovoid-pyramidal; styles 6-8 mm, 2-4 x ovary, spreading-incurved. Capsule (4-)5-8 x 2.5-4 mm, ovoid, equalling or exceeding sepals, enclosed when developing by petals twisting together. Seeds dark yellow-brown, 0.6-0.7 mm long; testa linear-reticulate.