无柄金丝桃 wu bing jin si tao

Shrubs, ca. 1 m tall; stems few, erect or arching, without or with few short lateral branches. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete; internodes 2.5-7 cm, mostly exceeding leaves. Leaves all sessile or lower (rarely all but uppermost) with flat petiole to 1.5 mm; blade oblong-lanceolate or oblong-ovate to broadly ovate, (3-)3.7-7.5 × (1-)1.5-4.4 cm, leathery, abaxially paler, both sides glaucous; laminar glands long streaks and dots; abaxial glands dense; main lateral veins 3-paired, without visible tertiary reticulation; base rounded to subcordate, apex acute to rounded-apiculate; upper ones subamplexicaul. Inflorescence (1-)3-13-flowered, from 1 or 2 nodes, nearly flat-topped, with short or very short terminal internode; bracts on main stem broadly ovate, usually forming a pseudo-whorl, others reduced, broadly ovate to lanceolate, deciduous. Pedicels 6-12 mm. Flowers 4-6.6 cm in diam., stellate to shallowly cupped; buds broadly ovoid, apex obtuse. Sepals erect, broadly oblong to broadly elliptic or ovate, equal to subequal, (0.7-)1-1.5 cm × 4-9 mm; laminar glands lines to dots, margin entire or slightly eroded toward apex, apex subapiculate or obtuse to rounded. Petals pale to bright golden yellow, obovate, 2-3.6 × 1.4-2.6 cm, 2.5-3 × as long as sepals; margin entire or very minutely denticulate, eglandular; apiculus rounded or nearly absent. Stamen fascicles each with 60-70 stamens, longest 1-2 cm, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Ovary broadly ovoid, 5-6 × 4-5 mm; styles 6-8 mm, ca. 1.2 × as long as ovary, free, erect to gradually divergent. Capsule broadly ovoid, 1-1.2 cm × 9-10 mm. Seeds dark reddish brown, ca. 1.5 mm, not or scarcely carinate; testa linear-reticulate. Fl. Sep-Oct, fr. Nov. 2n = ?54 (48-55)*.

● River banks, mountain slopes, open roadsides; 1200-1700 m. SW Guizhou (Anlong), S Yunnan (Jinghong, Shiping).

Hypericum augustinii is a stout plant with large, leathery leaves; characters that may be related to its degree of polyploidy (?6x).