Hypericum bifurcatum
Content
Description
Erect shrub (? or woody herb), ¼-1½ m, branches ± strict, rooting at the base;
branchlets 2-lined when young, eventually terete.
Leaves sessile, 7—13(—16) by 1½-6 mm, narrowly ovate to narrowly elliptic-oblong, apex rounded, base cuneate to rounded, concolorous, plane, ascending or appressed;
c. 7 main lateral veins, mostly from basal loops, ± parallel, little branched, uniting near margin and apex, without marked reticulate venation;
laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes with rows of dots on either side, becoming ± interrupted towards margin;
intramarginal glands pale only.
Inflorescence 1-flowered, with strong flowering shoots in uppermost axils and often weaker ones in axils immediately below, the repeated branching producing an effect of bifurcation;
pedicels equalling or exceeding uppermost leaves, 8-15 mm, long in fruit.
Flowers l½-2½ cm Ø, plane;
buds narrowly ovoid, rounded.
Sepals 4-6 by 1½-2 mm, free, imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, subacute, entire;
laminar glands pale, all or mostly linear;
submarginal glands pale or reddish.
Petals bright yellow, orange- or red-tinged below, 9-14 by 3-5 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, entire, persistent;
apiculus absent or almost so;
laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes interrupted distally;
marginal glands absent or one, sessile, reddish, on apiculus.
Stamens obscurely 3-fascicled, 25-35, longest 6-8 mm, c. ¾ as long as the petals, persistent;
anthers bright yellow, gland black.
Ovary 2 mm, ovoid;
styles 3, 2 mm, equalling the ovary, divergent;
stigmas narrowly capitate;
placentas 3, parietal except at the very base.
Capsule 6-9 by 3½-4½ mm, ± broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-pyramidal, longitudinally vittate.
Seeds yellow-brown, c. ¾ mm, cylindric to cylindric-ellipsoid, slightly carinate, densely linear-foveolate.