Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum scouleri
spotted St. John's-wort
Norton's St. John's-wort, Scouler's St. John's-wort, western john's-wort, western St. John's-wort
clustered, internodes not lined, with black glands scattered all over.
internodes usually weakly 2-lined, sometimes not lined, without black glands, rarely with reddish glands.
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).
usually spreading, rarely erect, sessile or (proximal) subpetiolate;
blade oblong-elliptic or elliptic to triangular-ovate or (proximal) obovate, 12–28(–32) × 6–15(–18) mm, base subcordate to rounded or (proximal) cuneate, margins plane, apex obtuse to rounded, midrib with 4–5 pairs of branches, tertiary veins not densely reticulate, black glands intramarginal (± dense) and, rarely, (1–2) laminar (distal).
subcorymbiform to cylindric, 10–206(–600)-flowered, subsidiary branches narrowly ascending to curved-ascending.
cylindric to narrowly pyramidal, (1–)8–20-flowered.
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.
6–15(–25) mm diam.;
sepals not or scarcely imbricate, erect in fruit, ovate to lanceolate or narrowly oblong, unequal to subequal, 2.5–5.5 × 1–2 mm, apex acute to rounded;
petals golden yellow, sometimes red-tinged, oblanceolate, 7–12 mm;
stamens 50–90(–109);
anther gland black;
styles 2–8 mm.
ovoid to subglobose, 2.5–6 × 2–3.5(–4) mm, with longitudinal vittae or elongate to ovoid vesicles.
oblanceoloid, 6–10 × 3.5–6 mm, with longitudinal vittae.
not carinate, 0.5–0.7 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
not carinate, (0.5–)0.7–0.8 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
= 14, 16.
= 16.
Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum scouleri
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.)
Some authors have included Hypericum scouleri in central Mexican H. formosum Kunth as a synonym, subspecies, or variety; the similarities in sepal form and glandularity between these species are due to convergence. Hypericum formosum is related to another Mexican species (H. oaxacanum R. Keller); the affinities of H. scouleri are with the H. attenuatum group from eastern Asia. Hypericum scouleri itself does occur in northern and central Mexico as far south as Michoacán, México, and Hidalgo, where it is known by the synonym H. simulans Rose.
J. M. Gillett and N. K. B. Robson (1981) treated the dwarf alpine form of Hypericum scouleri as subsp. nortoniae. Further work has revealed a range of intermediate forms between the two putative subspecies, which prevents their recognition. Likewise, the differentiation of a southern population (H. formosum subsp. formosum in the sense of C. L. Hitchcock) from a northern one [H. formosum subsp. scouleri (Hooker) C. L. Hitchcock] based on the broader, blunter, and less-glandular sepals in the latter, does not appear warranted.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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