Hypericum leschenaultii

Content

Description

Shrub or treelet,½-2½ m, branchlets 4-lined and flattened when young, becoming terete. Leaves subsessile or up to 7 mm petiolate, 23½-8 by 1-3¾ cm, lanceolate to narrowly ovate or rarely ovate, apex acute to rounded-apiculate, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin often reflexed, glaucous beneath; 4 main lateral veins, with lax reticulate venation; glands all pale, shortly striate and punctate. Inflorescence 1-3(-10, rarely up to 18)-flowered, terminal (1-2 nodes), corymbose. Flowers (3½-)4-7 cm Ø, flat or slightly concave; buds ± broadly ovoid, acute or subacute. Sepals 7-20 by 2-8 mm, free, imbricate, narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic or rarely ovate to oblanceolate, very acute to subacute, entire, midrib sometimes visible below and sometimes incrassate above; spreading or recurved in flower and fruit; glands all pale, linear. Petals deep golden yellow, (2-)2½- 4½ by VA-3 cm, broadly obovate to obovate-circular, entire, deciduous; apiculus ± distinct, acute to obtuse; glands all pale, linear. Stamen fascicles 5, 9-12 mm long, c. ⅓ as long as petals, each with c. 80 stamens, caducous; anthers yellow, gland amber. Ovary 6-9 mm, ovoid or ± narrowly ovoid-conic to narrowly ellipsoid, acuminate; styles 5, 3½-7 mm, about half as long as ovary, erect or suberect, outcurved near apex, free; stigma small; placentas 5, axile, with central lacuna. Capsule 1-2 cm, narrowly ellipsoid or narrowly ovoid-conic. Seeds dark orange-brown to reddish-brown, 0.8-1 mm, cylindric, sometimes curved, scarcely carinate, shallowly and minutely linear-foveolate to reticulate.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. (Bali present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Flores present, Lesser Sunda Is present, Lombok present, Mts Bonthain & Latimodjong present, SW. Celebes present

Malesia: Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Is. (Bali, Lombok, Flores), SW. Celebes (Mts Bonthain & Latimodjong). .

Notes

The form on Mt Kerintji (Sumatra) has more prominent main lateral leaf veins, larger flowers and broader sepals than the remainder of the species. In this it comes closest to the nearest relative of H. leschenaultii, a hitherto undescribed species from Thailand that differs in having elliptic-oblong leaves, with an intramarginal vein, more prominent secondary lateral veins and an apiculate apex, and ovate-triangular sepals.

Citation

STAPF 1926: Bot. Mag.: t. 9160

GUILLEMIN 1837: p. 17. – In: Delessert, Ic. Sel. Pl. 3: t. 27

Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 514

ROBSON 1970 – In: J. R. Hort. Soc.: 489

CHOISY 1854 – In: Zoll., Syst. Verz.: 151

CHOISY 1858: Pl. Jav.: 6

HASSK. 1844: Cat. Hort. Bog.: 213

Y. KIMURA 1951 – In: Nakai & Honda, Nova Fl. Jap. 10: 98

Ridl. 1917 – In: J. Fed. Mal. Stat. Mus.: 17

BACK. & BAKH.F. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 382

HASSK. 1844: Cat. Hort. Bog.: 213

MOR. 1846: Syst. Verz.: 25

Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 515

KELLER 1925 – In: E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam., ed. 2, 21: 176

BACK. 1911: Schoolfl. Java: 87

HOCHR. 1925 – In: Candollea: 435

Merr. 1934 – In: Contr. Arn. Arb.: 107

Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 515

KELLER 1925: p. 176. – In: E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam., ed. 2, 21: f. 73

BURBIDGE 1883: p. 158. – In: The Garden: t. 376

MOR. 1846: Syst. Verz.: 25

CHOISY 1854 – In: Zoll., Syst. Verz.: 151

DOCT. v. LEEUWEN 1927: p. 115. – In: Trop. Natuur: f. 23, 24

STEEN. 1972: Mt Fl. Java: t. 23: 6

STEEN. 1934 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Btzg: 219