Common name: Goldencup St. Johnswort
Hypericum patulum Thunb. APNI* Description: Multistemmed shrub to 2 (–3) m high; stems reddish brown towards apex, 4-angled when young, soon 2-lined or becoming terete.
Leaves: petiole 0.5–2 mm long; lamina discolorous (green above, paler below), lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to ovate or oblong-ovate, 15–60 mm long, 5–30 mm wide, base narrowly or broadly cuneate to short angustate, apex obtuse-apiculate to rounded-apiculate, with glandular streaks and dots.
Inflorescence 1–15-flowered. Flowers 25–40 mm diam.; sepals subequal to unequal, 5–10 mm long, margins apically denticulate-ciliolate; petals 5, golden yellow, c. 12–20 mm long, 10–17 mm wide; stamens in 5 bundles (c. 50–70 stamens in each fascicle), to 12 mm long; styles 5, joined at top of carpels, spreading above.
Capsule broadly ovoid, 9–11 mm long. Seeds ± cylindric, dark brown, 1–1.2 mm long, not or scarcely carinate, linear-foveolate.
Flowering: recorded February
Distribution and occurrence: native to SW China and northern Vietnam. Widely cultivated as an ornamental; naturalised at Mount Wilson, Central Tablelands. At Mount Wilson it grows in an overgrown yard and nearby in an opening in rainforest, in chocolate brown krasnozem soil on basalt.
NSW subdivisions: *CT
Sometimes placed in Clusiaceae.
Text by P.G. Kodela (June 2016)
Taxon concept: Robson, N.K.B. (1985) Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Bot. 12: 163–325.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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