Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum frondosum
spotted St. John's-wort
cedar glade St. John's-wort, golden St. John's wort
clustered, internodes not lined, with black glands scattered all over.
internodes 4-lined at first, then 2-lined to 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 usually oblong to lanceolate-oblong, sometimes oblanceolate, 25–65 × 8–22 mm, base articulated, broadly to narrowly cuneate, margins plane or subrecurved, apex apiculate-obtuse to rounded, midrib with 10–16 pairs of branches.
subcorymbiform to cylindric, 10–206(–600)-flowered, subsidiary branches narrowly ascending to curved-ascending.
1–3(–7)-flowered from apical node, sometimes with paired single flowers or triads (3-flowered cymules) or 1–3-flowered branches at proximal node.
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.
24–45 mm diam.;
sepals deciduous, not enclosing capsule, (4)5, ovate or oblong to elliptic-spatulate, unequal, 6–14(–20) × 4–10 mm;
petals (4–)5, golden yellow to orange-yellow, obovate to oblanceolate, 12–25 mm;
stamens deciduous, 250–650;
ovary 3-merous.
ovoid to subglobose, 2.5–6 × 2–3.5(–4) mm, with longitudinal vittae or elongate to ovoid vesicles.
ovoid-conic to ovoid-rostrate, 12–15 × 6–8 mm.
not carinate, 0.5–0.7 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
carinate, 1.5 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
= 14, 16.
= 18.
Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum frondosum
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 frondosum is endemic to the southwestern end of the Appalachian Range; it is recorded as introduced in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York (W. P. Adams 1962). Records from Arkansas and, possibly, South Carolina and Virginia appear to be errors for H. prolificum. Although H. frondosum is variable over its natural range and approaches H. prolificum morphologically in Arkansas, it remains distinct from its immediate relatives. In cultivation, it sometimes hybridizes with H. prolificum. Artificial hybrids have been made, as well as artificial tetraploids (O. Myers 1963).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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