Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum suffruticosum
spotted St. John's-wort
pineland St. Johnswort
clustered, internodes not lined, with black glands scattered all over.
internodes 4-lined at first, soon 2-winged.
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 elliptic or oblong-linear to narrowly obovate or oblanceolate, 3–10 × 1–3 mm, base not articulated, rounded to cuneate, without glandlike auricles, margins plane to subrecurved, apex obtuse, midrib unbranched.
subcorymbiform to cylindric, 10–206(–600)-flowered, subsidiary branches narrowly ascending to curved-ascending.
1-flowered, often with pseudodichotomous branches from apical node, without proximal branches;
pedicels mostly recurved to reflexed in fruit, bracteoles proximal.
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.
10–15 mm diam.;
sepals persistent, enclosing capsule, (2 or) 4, unequal, outer broadly ovate to broadly elliptic, 4–8 × 4–8 mm, apex obtuse to rounded, inner none or minute;
petals 4, pale yellow, narrowly obovate, often unequal, 4–8 mm;
stamens persistent, 30;
ovary 2-merous.
ovoid to subglobose, 2.5–6 × 2–3.5(–4) mm, with longitudinal vittae or elongate to ovoid vesicles.
cylindric-ellipsoid, 3–5 × 2–3 mm.
not carinate, 0.5–0.7 mm;
testa linear-reticulate.
scarcely carinate, 1 mm;
testa finely reticulate.
= 14, 16.
= 18.
Hypericum punctatum
Hypericum suffruticosum
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 suffruticosum is near the “cuneifolium” form of H. crux-andreae; it differs, among other things, by the two-merous ovary, the relatively small or absent inner sepals, the pedicels recurved or reflexed in fruit, and the cushion or matted habit.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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