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Carolina St. Johnswort

Habit Plants with ± few, slender, little-branched stems from base, 3–10 dm. Shrubs, erect, forming dense thickets, 3–45 dm, bark smooth, not metallic-silvery.
Stems

internodes 4-lined at first, becoming 2-winged, then terete.

Leaf

blades 9–26 × 0.5–0.8 mm, chartaceous, margins tightly inrolled, apex acute to long-acuminate.

blades linear or linear-subulate, 9–26 × 0.5–1.5 mm, base articulated, narrowly cuneate or parallel, margins revolute, apex rounded or acute to long-acuminate with prominent hydathode, midrib unbranched.

Inflorescences

with terminal dichasium 3–7-flowered.

narrowly to broadly cylindric, 3–15-flowered, sometimes with 1–3(–7)-flowered dichasia from to 6 proximal nodes, sometimes with 1–2 pairs of additional flowering branches.

Flowers

10–18 mm diam.;

sepals deciduous, not enclosing capsule, 5, linear-subulate, unequal to subequal, 3.5–7 × 0.4–0.8 mm;

petals 5, yellow, obovate to elliptic-lanceolate, (5–)6–10 mm;

stamens deciduous, 50–80(–115);

ovary 3-merous;

styles shorter than ovaries.

Capsules

cylindric to narrowly conic.

narrowly conic to cylindric, (4.5–)5–7 × (1.3–)2–3 mm.

Seeds

scarcely carinate, 0.5 mm;

testa finely reticulate.

Sepal

apices acute to long-acuminate.

2n

= 18.

Hypericum nitidum subsp. exile

Hypericum nitidum

Phenology Flowering spring (Apr–May).
Habitat Open pine woods in sand
Elevation 10 m (0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Central America; West Indies (w Cuba)
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; NC; SC; West Indies (Cuba); Central America (Belize)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Subspecies 3 (2 in the flora).

The two subspecies of Hypericum nitidum present in North America apparently remain distinct there; the distinctions are less clear in Cuba, where subsp. cubense (Turczaninow) N. Robson is also present.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Plants to 45+ dm, with ± numerous, stout, bushy-branched stems from base; leaf blade margins loosely inrolled, apex obtuse to rounded-apiculate; sepal apices shortly apiculate to acute.
subsp. nitidum
1. Plants 3–10 dm, with ± few, slender, little-branched stems from base; leaf blade margins tightly inrolled, apex acute to long-acuminate; sepal apices acute to long-acuminate.
subsp. exile
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 80. FNA vol. 6, p. 79.
Parent taxa Hypericaceae > Hypericum > sect. Myriandra > Hypericum nitidum Hypericaceae > Hypericum > sect. Myriandra
Sibling taxa
H. nitidum subsp. nitidum
H. adpressum, H. anagalloides, H. apocynifolium, H. ascyron, H. boreale, H. brachyphyllum, H. buckleyi, H. canadense, H. canariense, H. chapmanii, H. cistifolium, H. concinnum, H. crux-andreae, H. cumulicola, H. densiflorum, H. denticulatum, H. dolabriforme, H. drummondii, H. edisonianum, H. ellipticum, H. erythreae, H. fasciculatum, H. frondosum, H. galioides, H. gentianoides, H. graveolens, H. gymnanthum, H. harperi, H. hypericoides, H. kalmianum, H. lissophloeus, H. lloydii, H. lobocarpum, H. maculatum, H. majus, H. microsepalum, H. mutilum, H. myrtifolium, H. nudiflorum, H. paucifolium, H. perforatum, H. prolificum, H. pseudomaculatum, H. punctatum, H. radfordiorum, H. scouleri, H. setosum, H. sphaerocarpum, H. suffruticosum, H. tenuifolium, H. tetrapetalum, H. virgatum, H. ×mitchellianum
Subordinate taxa
H. nitidum subsp. exile, H. nitidum subsp. nitidum
Synonyms H. exile, H. galioides var. cubense Myriandra nitida
Name authority (W. P. Adams) N. Robson: Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Bot. 23: 67. (1993) Lamarck: in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 4: 160. (1797)
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