Shrubs, 0.5-3 m tall, bushy; branches erect to arching, not or weakly frondose. Stems 4-lined and ancipitous when young, usually eventually 2-lined or terete; internodes 1-2 cm, usually shorter than leaves. Leaves subsessile or with petiole to ca. 1 mm; blade narrowly elliptic or elliptic-oblong to lanceolate or ovate, 1-4 × 0.4-1.6 cm, thickly papery, abaxially densely glaucous; laminar glands streaks and dots; abaxial glands dense to sparse; main lateral veins 2- or 3(or 4)-paired, tertiary reticulation scarcely or not visible; base angustate or cuneate to rounded, apex acute to obtuse or more rarely rounded. Inflorescence 1-5(-7)-flowered, from 1 or 2 nodes, nearly flat-topped, usually with short terminal internode, sometimes with 1(or 2) flowering branches from middle region of stem; bracts deciduous, narrowly oblong to lanceolate. Pedicels 4-7 mm. Flowers 1.5-5.2 cm in diam., shallowly to deeply cupped; buds broadly ovoid to globose, apex subacute to rounded. Sepals erect, unequal, oblong or elliptic to obovate-spatulate or broadly ovate or circular, 4-9 × 2.5-6 mm; laminar glands lines to dots, margin entire or ± eroded-denticulate with narrow hyaline margin, apex acute (rarely) or apiculate to obtuse or rounded. Petals golden to pale yellow, sometimes tinged red, narrowly to broadly obovate, 0.8-2.5 × 0.6-1.5 cm, 2-4 × as long as sepals; margin entire with row of intramarginal gland-dots; apiculus rounded or obscure. Stamen fascicles each with (30-)40-60 stamens, longest 5-13 mm, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Ovary ± broadly ovoid, ca. 3.5 × 7 mm; styles 2.5-6 mm, 0.7-1.2 × as long as ovary, free, erect, outcurved toward apex. Capsule narrowly ovoid-pyramidal to subglobose, 0.9-1.2(-1.4) cm × 8-10 mm. Seeds dark brown, 1-1.2 mm, not or scarcely carinate; testa linear-foveolate. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Jul-Nov.

Hypericum henryi forms a complex with the following two species (H. patulum and H. uralum). It can be divided into three not easily separable subspecies, of which two (H. henryi subsp. henryi and H. henryi subsp. uraloides) tend to merge into H. patulum and H. uralum, respectively.

Dry, usually open habitats such as slopes, thickets, open forests; 1300-3000 m. C and SW Guizhou, C and S Sichuan, Yunnan [Indonesia (Sumatra), Myanmar, Thailand, N Vietnam].