Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum brachyphyllum
spotted St. John's-wort
coastal plain St. Johnswort
clustered, internodes not lined, with black glands scattered all over.
internodes sometimes 4-lined at first, soon 2-winged, not terete.
spreading or ascending, usually sessile, rarely petiolate (to 1 mm);
blade elliptic or oblong to lanceolate or triangular-lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 14–40(–58) × 3–17(–22.5) mm, base cordate to narrowly cuneate, margins plane, apex usually rounded to retuse, rarely acute to obtuse, midrib with 3–5 pairs of branches, tertiary veins densely reticulate toward margins, black glands intramarginal (dense) and laminar (scattered).
blades linear, 6–12 × 0.5–0.7 mm, base articulated deciduous with leaf, cf.
subcorymbiform to cylindric, 10–206(–600)-flowered, subsidiary branches narrowly ascending to curved-ascending.
± narrowly cylindric, 3–15-flowered, with 3–5-flowered dichasia or flowering branches from to 10 proximal nodes.
8–15 mm diam.;
sepals not imbricate, erect in fruit, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to elliptic or ovate-elliptic, subequal, (1.5–)2–4 × 0.8–1.6 mm, apex acute to rounded;
petals pale yellow, oblanceolate to elliptic, 3–6(–9) mm;
stamens (20–)30–60;
anther gland black;
styles 1–4 mm.
10–13 mm diam.;
sepals deciduous, not enclosing capsule, 5, linear, unequal, 2.5–4.5 × 0.5–1 mm;
petals 5, bright yellow, obovate-spatulate, 5–8 mm;
stamens deciduous, 40–45;
ovary 3-merous;
styles longer than ovaries.
ovoid to subglobose, 2.5–6 × 2–3.5(–4) mm, with longitudinal vittae or elongate to ovoid vesicles.
narrowly cylindric to narrowly ovoid-conic, 3.5–5 × 1.5–2 mm.
not carinate, 0.5–0.7 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
not carinate, 0.4–0.6 mm;
testa finely reticulate.
. H. tenuifolium, parallel, margins revolute, apex rounded-apiculate, midrib unbranched.
= 14, 16.
= 18.
Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum brachyphyllum
Hypericum punctatum has been confused with H. pseudomaculatum; it can almost always be distinguished by style length and anther gland (black in H. punctatum, amber or pellucid in H. pseudomaculatum). D. E. Culwell’s (1970) record of one specimen of the latter from Missouri with a black anther gland could refer to a hybrid; he and other authors agree that such plants are rare, despite the considerable overlap in distribution of these species. Culwell remarked on the unexpected fecundity of the experimentally produced cross H. graveolens × punctatum but nowhere compared the resulting plants with H. ×mitchellianum, a probable hybrid with that parentage (see discussion
under H. ×mitchellianum. Both H. punctatum and H. ×mitchellianum (but not H. graveolens) display a ring of 16 chromosomes at meiosis, and Culwell suggested that this phenomenon may imply some degree of pseudogamy in the group. C. R. Bell (1965) recorded n = 7 chromosomes for this species; his illustration shows n = 8.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Hypericum brachyphyllum is bushier than H. nitidum subsp. exile, with relatively small flowers, capsules, and, usually, leaves, and shorter styles. The bushy habit, two-sided shoots, and glossy leaves without prominent base or apical hydathode, as well as the wet habitats, all distinguish it from H. tenuifolium.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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