Hypericum geminiflorum

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Hypericum geminiflorum

Description

Lax shrub, ½-1½ m, branches long, often pendulous then ascending near apex; branchlets 4-lined when young, eventually becoming terete. Leaves subsessile, 2-4½ by 0.6-2.2 cm, oblong to elliptic or ovate-oblong, apex subacute to rounded, usually apiculate, base broadly to narrowly cune — ate, paler below; c. 1 main lateral veins, uniting to form strong intramarginal vein, the reticulate venation not or scarcely visible; glands all pale, punctate. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal and on solitary or paired short shoots from up to 14 nodes below, more rarely axillary shoots 2(-3)-flowered with flowers pedunculate. Flowers 2-3 cm ø, plane; buds ovoid, acute or subacute. Sepals (l-)1½-2½ by1-1½(-2) mm, free or connate at the base, broadly ovate or triangular or oblong-lanceolate or subcircular, subacute to rounded, entire, midrib invisible; spreading in flower, ascending in fruit; glands all pale, linear and punctate. Petals bright yellow, 9-15 by 5-7 mm, narrowly obovate, entire, caducous; apiculus absent; glands all pale, linear. Stamen fascicles 5, 6-10 mm long, c. ⅔ as long as petals, each with 6-11 stamens, caducous; anthers bright yellow, gland amber. Ovary 2½-3½Amm, narrowly ellipsoid; styles 5, 4-6(-7) mm, c. 1.3-2 times as long as ovary, completely united; stigmas small; placentas 5, axile with small central lacuna. Capsule 8-11 mm, narrowly cylindric to narrowly cylindric-conic. Seeds dark reddish-brown, c. 1½ mm, fusiform to narrowly ovoid or narrowly cylindric, scarcely carinate, with long terminal appendage sometimes expanded to form narrow wing, very shallowly elongate-reticulate.

Distribution

Asia-Temperate: Taiwan (Taiwan present), Asia-Tropical: Philippines (Philippines present), Luzon present
Taiwan, in Malesia: Philippines (Luzon).

Notes

The Philippine plants should clearly be included in H. geminiflorum, while PRICE 688 (from Taiwan, Prov. Taitung) and HAYATA'S and KIMURA'S figures indicate that H. acutisepalum cannot be distinguished from it. H. trinervium seems rather distinct, at first glance, in having stouter shoots and pedicels and relatively broader leaves with a strong submarginal vein. As each of these characters appears in specimens of typical H. geminiflorum, although not in the same individual, it seems best to regard H. trinervium as a local race of H. geminiflorum.

Citation

HAYATA 1911 – In: IC. Pl Formos.: 76
LEV. 1908 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 590
Y. KIMURA 1951 – In: Nakai & Honda, Nova Fl. Jap. 10: 95
Merr. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 75
Y. KIMURA 1951: p. 93. – In: Nakai & Honda, Nova Fl Jap. 10: t. 40
HAYATA 1911 – In: IC. Pl Formos.: 79
HAYATA 1913 – In: IC. Pl Formos.: 41
HAYATA 1911: p. 77. – In: Ic. Pl Formos.: t. 15
LEV. 1908 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 590
Y. KIMURA 1951 – In: Nakai & Honda, Nova Fl. Jap. 10: 92