Hypericum cuisinii (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb with stems 0.04-0. 15(-0.28) m long, decumbent or diffuse-ascending, rooting, with rather woody taproot, many-stemmed, caespitose, branched below inflorescence, pruinose to shortly whitish-pubescent on stems below inflorescence and on both surfaces of leaves or rarely wholly glabrous. Stems green, terete or rarely (2)4-lined; internodes usually exceeding leaves, eglandular. Leaves sessile or with petiole to 0.5 mm; lamina 2-15 x 2-10(-13) mm, ovate or oblong or elliptic to orbicular or oblanceolate, paler beneath, thinly chartaceous, not glaucous, shortly densely pubescent to pruinose or glabrous beneath, puberulous to glabrous above, plane or with margin recurved, spreading; apex rounded, margin entire, base rounded to rarely cuneate; venation: 2 pairs of laterals curved-ascending from lower 0.4 of midrib, tertiary reticulation dense, obscure, not prominent; laminar glands all pale or rarely 1-3 distal black, dense to rather sparse, unequal; intramarginal or submarginal glands black, irregular or rather sparse. Inflorescence l-7(-21)-flowered from 1-2 nodes, sometimes with flowering branches from 1-2 lower nodes, cylindric to subcorymbiform, dense; pedicels 2-3 mm; bracts and bracteoles linear-lanceolate to linear-elliptic, black-glandular-ciliate, often with basal cilia some- what longer but not auriculate. Flowers 8-12 mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid, rounded. Sepals 2.5-3.5 x 1-1.5 mm, equal, free or very shortly united, oblong or elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate, obtuse to rounded, with margin medium- to short-glandular-ciliate; veins 3, outer sometimes branched; laminar glands pale, punctiform and black, 2-12, scattered, punctiform; marginal glands black, flat- topped. Petals pale? yellow, not tinged red, 5-7(-8) x 2-2.5 mm, c. 2.5 x sepals, elliptic-oblong, rounded, apiculus absent; laminar glands pale, punctiform, few (or sometimes none?), and usually black, up to 9, punctiform, mostly distal; marginal glands absent. Stamens c. 25, longest 4-5.5 mm, 0.7-0.8 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 1.5 x 0.8-1 mm, ellipsoid; styles 3-3.5 mm, c. 2 x ovary, spreading-incurved. Capsule 3-4 x 2.5-3 mm, ellipsoid to subglobose, exceeding sepals, enclosed when developing by petals twisting together. Seeds dark reddish brown, 0.4-0.6 mm long; testa finely foveolate-scalariform.
In rock fissures (gneiss or limestone) or near springs; (10-)500- 1400m.
Greece (Khios, Ikaria, Karpathos, Kasos), Turkey (Izmir).
H. cuisinii is clearly a derivative of H. atomarium growing in higher and more exposed habitats. Whilst H. atomarium normally has erect, non-rooting stems, in Sintenis 602 (Kaz Daǧ) and Stamatiadou 9106 (Ikaria, 300-350 m) the stems are decumbent and, in the latter, rooting. There is, nevertheless, a distinct though small 'gap' between the respective flower sizes of the two taxa, and so I prefer to retain H. cuisinii at specific rank, at least until comparative field studies have been made. The Karpathos population is the most reduced, with leaves small, often orbicular to oblanceolate and (along with the stems) sometimes glabrous. It shows a greater resemblance in leaf shape to the population of H. atomarium from adjacent Rhodos than to the rest of H. cuisinii and could conceivably have evolved independently - as indeed could the population on the Anatolian mainland (Boz Daǧ), found at 1400 m near a spring.
In Flora of Turkey (Robson, 1967), I treated Schwarz’s name as a synonym of H. aviculariifolium subsp. depilatum var. bourgaei (Boiss.) N. Robson; but, having at last traced the type (Schwarz 911 from Izmir, Boz Daǧ) to Berlin (B), I found that it was a rather impoverished specimen of H. cuisiniii, a species that has subsequently been refound on this mainland Turkish mountain by Dr Sorger (Sorger 68-16-5). See Robson (2010: 35).