Hypericum tomentosum (Nomenclature)
Perennial herb c. 0.09-0.53 m tall, erect or decumbent to prostrate, from scarcely woody taproot, branching and sometimes rooting at base, upper branches sometimes present in some or all axils, spreading to ascending, the whole plant up to sepals (dorsally) greyish villous to -tomentose or leaves hirsute to crisped-pubescent. Stems green, terete, internodes mostly exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile; lamina 5-26 x 2-11 mm, elliptic-oblong to oblong or oblanceolate or ovate to triangular-ovate, concolorous, chartaceous, not glaucous, plane, spreading; apex rounded, margin plane, entire, base cuneate to truncate or subcordate; venation: 3 pairs of laterals curved- ascending from lower 0.3-0.4 of midrib, tertiary reticulation obscure; laminar glands pale, dense, unequal, not prominent; intramarginal glands black, rather dense to sparse, sometimes irregular and becoming submarginal, or absent (then black glands wholly absent). Inflorescence 3-c. 70-flowered from up to 3 nodes, curved- corymbiform to cylindric, with flowering branches from up to most lower nodes, the whole then cylindric; pedicels 0.5-2 mm, elongating to 5-8 mm in fruit; bracts not auriculate, bracteoles linear, with apex and margin black-glandular-ciliate. Flowers 10-15(-20) mm in diam.; buds ellipsoid, obtuse to rounded-obtuse. Sepals 3-5(-6?) x 1-2.5 mm, subequal to unequal, lanceolate to ovate or broadly elliptic, acute to usually shortly aristate, with marginal glands mostly prominent; veins 3-5, unbranched; laminar glands pale, punctiform to slightly elongate, sometimes also 1-3 black, submar- ginal; marginal glands black, c. 8-16 on each side, on cilia or sessile but then nearly always prominent, the apex usually with larger gland. Petals bright yellow, not tinged or veined red, 6-11 x 2.5- 3.5(-4?) mm, c. 2 x sepals, oblanceolate, rounded, apiculus lateral, shortly acute to absent; laminar glands pale, proximally linear, distally striiform to punctiform; marginal to inframarginal glands black, few, subterminal, not prominent. Stamens c. 25-35, clearly 3- fascicled, longest 5-7 mm, 0.6-0.8 x petals; anther gland black. Ovary 1.5-2 x 1-1.3 mm, narrowly ovoid-pyramidal; styles 3.5-5.5 mm, 2.75-3.3 x ovary, widely spreading-incurved. Capsule 4-5 x 3-3.5 mm, ovoid-subglobose, shorter than sepals, enclosed by petals twisting together. Seeds 'greyish-brown' (fide Ramos, 1987), c. 0.8 mm long; testa finely reticulate-scalariform (fide Ramos, 1983: 57, t. 6 f. 1).
2n = 16 (Queiros, 1991), n = 8 (Nielsen, 1924).
Stream margins, damp or marshy grassland, maquis, evergreen scrub; 0-200 m (France), 0-800 m (Italy), 0-1200 m (Spain), 0-1450 m (Morocco).
Portugal (N. to Coimbra), Spain (except NW), France (Mediterranean lowlands), Italy (Liguria, also Campagnia and Basilicata, fide Pignatti, 1982), Corsica (one locality, extinct?, fide Gamisans, 1985), Sardinia, Majorca, Morocco (Tangier, Rif, northern Moyen Atlas), Algeria (north), Tunisia (north).
H. tomentosum tends to be smaller in all its parts than 7. H. pubescens and to have shorter hairs; but (i) the south Moroccan populations of H. pubescens are vegetatively smaller than many examples of H, tomentosum, although the flowers are still relatively large, and (ii) the populations of H. tomentosum from the Atlas Rifain of northern Morocco described as H. carbonelli have an unusually long indumentum. None of the described variations in H. tomentosum, however, appears to merit taxonomic recognition. For intermediates between H. tomentosum and H. pubescens, see H. pubescens × tomentosum.
The reasons for treating H. tomentosum and H. pubescens as distinct species are discussed in the account of the latter. H. tomentosum has a mainly west Mediterranean distribution, from NE Morocco and NW Algeria to Liguria with Majorca and Corsica; H. pubescens has a south-west Mediterranean distribution, south Morocco to SE Spain, Tunisia, Malta and Sicily. Where these distributions meet (Sardinia) or overlap (Morocco-Algeria border, SE Spain), there are intermediates (hybrids). The records from southern Italy would therefore be expected to be of H. pubescens, but they are in fact of H. tomentosum (Pignatti, 1982). Pignatti (in litt. 1991) has informed me that the Basilicata record (from Monte Vultura) is based on an old specimen of Terraciano (in Fl?), which I have yet to see. The record(s) of H. tomentosum from Campania are similarly doubtful, as are those from Tunisia (Pottier-Alapetite, 1979).
The Linnaean phrase-name clearly describes H tomentosum rather than H. pubescens Boiss. Following Clusius and Bauhin, Linnaeus differentiated a smaller French plant (H. supinum tomentosum minus & monspeliacum of Bauhin) from a larger Spanish one (H. supinum tomentosum majus & hispanicum of Bauhin), the latter as a var. β. From Clusius (Rar. pl. hist. 2: 181, 1601) it is clear that these are both forms of H. tomentosum. There are three specimens of this species that Linnaeus studied, two in his own herbarium (LINN 943.42 and 43) and one in Herb. Burser (UPS 16: 23). Specimen 943.42 is labelled Hypericum supinum majus hispanicum and was given to Linnaeus by Monnier; 943.43 is a typical young-flowered plant of the northern, French form, the collector being unknown; and the Burser plant is a fruiting specimen from Montpellier. Of the two specimens of the French form, I therefore select the flowering one (LINN 943.43) as the lectotype of H. tomentosum L.
With respect to H. supinum Vis., Robson (1967a) showed that de Visiani's clear intention was to raise Linnaeus's H. tomentosum [var.] β to specific rank and to include the Turkish specimen (from Edremit) in that species. The Turkish specimen belongs to 21. H. atomarium, but the lectotype must be that of H. tomentosum [var.] β L., i.e. LINN 943.42 (see discussion under H. tomentosum).
Stefanoff (1934: 87) made ?H. canescens Trevir. a synonym of H. lusitanicum Poiret, and Treviranus suggested that it might be a prostrate form of that species. He stated, however, that the fruit [of the type specimen, now in BHU?] had been destroyed. The identity of this taxon must therefore remain sub judice.