栽秧花 zai yang hua

Shrubs, 0.6-2 m tall, bushy; branches erect or arching. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, sooner or later terete; internodes 1-6 cm, shorter than to exceeding leaves. Leaves with petiole 0.5-2(-2.5) mm; blade narrowly elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to triangular-ovate, 2.5-6.5 × 1-3.5(-3.8) cm, thickly papery to subleathery, abaxially paler or glaucous; laminar glands dots to rather long streaks; adaxial glands dense or sparse (near midvein) or absent; main lateral veins 3-5-paired, sometimes prominent, tertiary reticulation lax, obscure; base cuneate to rounded-truncate, apex acute to apiculate-rounded. Inflorescence 1-11(-14)-flowered, from 1(or 2) nodes, nearly flat-topped; bracts narrowly lanceolate (upper) to leaflike (lower), persistent. Pedicels 4-10 mm (to 1.3 cm in fruit). Flowers 3-5 cm in diam., stellate to shallowly cupped; buds ovoid-conic to broadly ovoid, apex acute to obtuse. Sepals spreading to outcurving or erect, equal to subequal, narrowly to broadly ovate, 5-10 × 4-6 mm (enlarging in fruit to 1.4 × 1.2 cm), margin entire or distally minutely glandular-denticulate with hyaline margin, apex acute or apiculate to obtuse. Petals golden yellow, not or scarcely tinged red, broadly ovate to oblong, (1.5-)2-2.6 × 1.3-2.2 cm, 2-4.5 × as long as sepals, eglandular, margin entire or eroded-denticulate, apiculus obtuse to rounded or obsolete. Stamen fascicles each with 40-55 stamens, longest 1-1.7 cm, 0.5-0.7 × as long as petals. Ovary narrowly to broadly pyramidal-ovoid, 5.5-9 × 4-5 mm; styles 3.5-7 mm, 0.45-0.85 × as long as ovary, free, suberect, outcurved near apex. Capsule narrowly cylindric-ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, 1.5-2 × 0.8-1.2 cm. Seeds dark chestnut brown, 1-1.5 mm, distally winged, otherwise variably carinate; testa linear-reticulate. Fl. Mar-Jul(-Oct), fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 36*.

● Open forests, thickets, streamsides and grassy or stony slopes; 1500-2100 m. SW Guizhou (Anlong, Zhenfeng), C Sichuan (Hanyuan), E Yunnan.

Hypericum beanii, like H. lagarocladum, shows a marked trend in variation, in this case from south to north. From S Yunnan (Mengzi) to the Kunming region, the leaves are mostly elliptic to lanceolate and acute and the main venation is not prominent, the flowers are stellate, the sepals spread in bud and fruit, and the ovary and capsule are cylindric-ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid; northward into Sichuan, the leaves become triangular-lanceolate to triangular-ovoid with rather prominent main venation, the flowers become cupped, the sepals become erect in bud and fruit, and the ovary and capsule become broadly pyramidal-ovoid. The transition, however, is gradual, so it is not possible to recognize two subspecies.

The easternmost population, in SW Guizhou (Anlong), is distinct in having broadly elliptic to oblong-ovate rounded leaves, sepals erect in fruit (flowering state not known), and ovoid capsules. It appears to represent a separate morphological trend and, when better known, may deserve taxonomic recognition (Hypericum beanii forma). In the key, this population runs down to lead 34a, not to lead 33a.