Hypericum hirsutum L.

Hypericum hirsutum is the only Chinese Hypericum with hairy stems and leaves.

Herbs, perennial, 35-100 cm tall, all parts to sepals crisped-pubescent to -puberulous (longer on stem), erect from creeping and rooting base, with few branches. Stems terete, eglandular. Leaves subsessile or with petiole to 1.5 mm; blade ovate-oblong to elliptic, 1.7-5(-6) × 1-2 cm; thickly papery, abaxially paler; laminar glands pale, scattered dots; main lateral veins 2- or 3-paired, tertiary reticulation dense; base broadly cuneate, margin entire and plane, apex obtuse. Inflorescence many flowered, from 3-6 nodes, sometimes with subsidiary branches from 1-4 nodes below, the whole narrowly pyramidal to cylindric, 3.5-25 × 1.5-6 cm; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, black-glandular-ciliate. Flowers ca. 9 mm in diam., stellate; buds ellipsoid, apex obtuse. Sepals shortly united, narrowly oblong to lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, subequal, (2.5-)3.5-4 × 0.7-1 mm; laminar glands pale, streaks to dots; marginal glands black, on cilia or denticles; margin glandular-ciliate to -denticulate, apex subacute; veins 3. Petals bright [or rarely pale] yellow, sometimes red-veined, oblong-elliptic, 1-1.2 cm × ca. 5 mm, 2-3 × as long as sepals; laminar glands sparse, pale, lines to dots; margin sparsely black-glandular-ciliate. Stamens 24-30, longest 7-10 mm, 0.7-0.8 × as long as petals. Ovary ovoid; styles 2-6 mm, 1.3-2.5 × as long as ovary. Capsule ovoid or oblong-ovoid to conic, 4-7 × 3-5 mm, 1.5-2 × as long as sepals. Seeds brown, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep. 2n = ?16, 18.

Xinjiang (Gongliu) [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia (European part, Siberia E to Angara Sayan); NW Africa (Algeria), SW Asia, Europe (except Mediterranean region)].

Wooded valleys and slopes; below 2800 m.