Hypericum argyi H. Leveille & Vaniot; Komana patula (Thunberg) Y. Kimura ex Honda; Norysca patula (Thunberg) J. Voigt.

Shrubs, 0.3-1.5(-3) m tall, bushy; branches spreading, sometimes weakly frondose. Stems 4-lined or 4-angled when young, soon 2-lined, sometimes eventually terete; internodes 0.8-4 cm, usually shorter than leaves. Leaves with petiole 0.5-2 mm; blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to ovate or oblong-ovate, 1.5-6 × 0.5-3 cm, thickly papery, abaxially rather glaucous; laminar glands short streaks and dots; abaxial glands ± dense; main lateral veins 3-paired, tertiary reticulation scarcely visible; base narrowly or broadly cuneate to short angustate, apex obtuse-apiculate to rounded-apiculate. Inflorescence 1-15-flowered, from 1 or 2 nodes, flat-topped, sometimes with short terminal internode and/or with 1-3-flowered branches from middle of stem; bracts deciduous, narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong. Pedicels 2-4(-7) mm. Flowers 2.5-4 cm in diam., ± deeply cupped; buds broadly ovoid, apex obtuse. Sepals erect, subequal to unequal, often reddish, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic or subcircular to oblong-elliptic or obovate-spatulate, 5-10 × 3.5-7 mm; laminar glands lines; margin eroded-denticulate to ciliolate with markedly hyaline margin, apex obtuse to rounded or retuse and usually apiculate. Petals golden yellow, not tinged red, oblong-obovate to broadly obovate, 1.2-1.8 × 1-1.4 cm, 1.5-2 × as long as sepals; margin entire or slightly eroded-denticulate with row of intramarginal gland-dots; apiculus rounded to obsolete. Stamen fascicles each with 50-70 stamens, longest 7-12 mm, 0.4-0.5 × as long as petals. Ovary ± broadly ovoid, 5-6 × 3.5-4 mm; styles 4-5.5 mm, 0.75-0.95 × as long as ovary, free, ± erect, outcurved toward apex. Capsule broadly ovoid, 0.9-1.1 cm × 8-10 mm. Seeds dark brown, 1-1.2 mm, not or scarcely carinate; testa linear-foveolate. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 20 (2n = 36 was based on a misidentification).

Several gatherings from Yunnan approach Hypericum patulum in form, but they all have 4-lined or 4-angled stems and are therefore better placed in H. henryi subsp. henryi.

Open forests and thickets, cliffs, roadsides; (300-)450-2400 m. Native in N Guizhou, Sichuan; probably originally introduced into Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [cultivated widely in gardens and naturalized in Japan, India, South Africa, and elsewhere].