Hypericum pulchrum L.
slender St John's wort
Glabrous perennial herb with short rhizomes; stems slender, erect, to c. 90 cm tall, reddish, terete or nearly so, woody at base. Lvs sessile, amplexicaul on main stems, rounded to cordate on short branches, 0.4-2.5 × 0.2-2 cm, narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate, with pellucid glands prominent and black glands 0; apex ± rounded. Infl. terminal, a panicle of cymes, cylindric or narrow-pyramidal, open, few- to many-flowered; bracts entire or occasionally 1-2-toothed. Sepals ± equal, 2-4.5 mm long, suborbicular, not accrescent, entire, with pellucid glands and regularly spaced black glandular cilia in upper 1/2; apex obtuse or rounded. Corolla 1-1.5 cm diam., yellow with red tinge at anthesis and reddish in bud; petals broad-obovate to suborbicular, with evenly or irregularly spaced black glands, much > sepals. Stamens in 3 bundles; longest stamens nearly = petals. Styles 3, > ovary. Capsule 5-7 mm long, broadly ellipsoid-ovoid, dry. Seeds c. 1 mm long, cylindric, with a ventral line, very finely reticulate.
N.: Mt Bruce and near Mauriceville (Wairarapa); S.: Teal Valley (Nelson), between Picton and Tuamarina and along the north side of the Wairau R. (Marlborough), Te Rou (N. Canterbury), W. Southland and Fiordland.
Europe 1956
Local in fern, scrub and other secondary growth on hill country grassland in fairly high rainfall areas.
FL Dec-Feb.
H. pulchrum may grow in the same locality as H. perforatum, but can be distinguished by the ± terete stems, the even fringe of black glands on the sepals, and the reddish petals, anthers and stigmas.
