Hypericum pubescens (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb c. 0.1-0.7 m tall, erect to decumbent or ascending or rarely prostrate, from woody taproot, branching, rooting and sometimes woody at base, upper branches sometimes present, spread- ing to ascending, the whole plant up to the sepals (dorsally) greyish-villous to -pubescent. Stems green to pale reddish, 2-4-lined and compressed in and near inflorescence, otherwise terete, internodes mostly exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile; lamina 6-40(-70) x 2-16(-23) mm, narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate to rarely ovate-oblong, concolorous, chartaceous, not glaucous, plane, spreading; apex subobtuse to usually rounded, margin plane, entire or very rarely lower leaves sparsely glandular-subdentate, base rounded to usually cordate-amplexicaul; venation: 3(4) pairs of laterals curved-ascending from base or up to lower 0.4 of midrib, tertiary reticulation rather dense, often obscure; laminar glands pale, dense, subequal, not prominent, sometimes also with a few black, punctiform, scattered; intramarginal glands black, rather dense to sparse; marginal glands (very rarely present) amber, globose, prominent. Inflorescence (l)3-c. 5-flowered from up to 3 nodes, curved-corymbiform, becoming monochasial after first flower, some- times with flowering branches from up to most lower nodes, the whole then broadly triangular to cylindric; pedicels 1.5-3.5 mm; bracts not auriculate; bracteoles linear, usually with a few sessile black glands or (proximally) black-glandular-cilia. Flowers 15-30 mm in diam.; buds cylindric-ellipsoid, obtuse. Sepals 5-10 x 1.5- 2.5 mm, subequal, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, long-aristate, entire to subentire; veins 3(5), unbranched; laminar glands pale, punctiform to slightly elongate; marginal glands black, 3-5 on each side, sessile, the arista reddish and very rarely with small black apical gland. Petals pale to bright yellow, often veined dorsally, 9-15 x 3-6.5 mm, c. 1.5 x sepals, oblanceolate, rounded, apiculus apiculate or absent; laminar glands pale, striiform to punctiform; marginal to inframarginal glands black, not or scarcely prominent. Stamens c. 30-50, clearly 3-fascicled, longest 6-11 mm, 0.6-0.65 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 2-3 x 1-2 mm, ovoid-ellipsoid to ellipsoid; styles 3, 5-7 mm, 2-3 x ovary, widely spreading-incurved. Capsule 6-7 x 3.5-5 mm, ovoid, shorter than sepals, enclosed by petals twisted together. Seeds purplish brown, 0.6-1 mm long; testa finely scalariform.
2n=18 (Robson, 1981), 36 (fide Ramos, 1987: 318); Reynaud, 1986.
River and stream margins, rocky ground, roadsides and waste habitats, often in damp ground; 0-1875 m.
Portugal (south), Spain (south), Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia? (see below).
H. pubescens is directly related to the Canary Island H. glandulosum and appears to be ancestral to H. tomentosum. Its distribution is south-west of that of H. tomentosum, but there are quite wide areas of overlap in south Spain, north-eastern Morocco and north-western Algeria. Morphological intermediates are few and apparently mainly confined to two small regions, viz. Valencia near L. Albufera and the Moroccan-Algerian border. In addition, the recorded chromosome numbers (H. pubescens 2n=18, 36; H. tomentosum 2n=16) suggest that they are specifically distinct. For these reasons it seems best to treat the intermediates as hybrids and H. pubescens and H. tomentosum as species. Although H. pubescens is quite variable in size and habit, depending on humidity and exposure, at least one of the named variants is not worthy of recognition: var. damnatorum was based on the occurrence of purplish anthers, which was probably due to suffusion of hypericin from the anther gland. I have not seen the type of var. viridulum