Large Flowered St John's Wort

Shrubs, 1-1.8 m tall; branches erect or arching. Stems 4-lined and ± ancipitous when young, becoming 2-lined, eventually terete; internodes 1-4 cm, shorter than to exceeding leaves. Leaves with petiole 0.5-1.5 mm; blade elliptic or lanceolate to ovate or triangular-ovate, 2-5.8 × 0.6-3 cm, thickly papery, abaxially paler but not or scarcely glaucous; laminar glands dots and short streaks; abaxial glands ± dense; main lateral veins 3- or 4(or 5)-paired, tertiary reticulation obscure or invisible; base cuneate or subangustate to rounded, apex acute to obtuse or rarely rounded-apiculate. Inflorescence 1-7(-11)-flowered, from 1(or 2) nodes, nearly flat-topped; bracts deciduous, narrowly lanceolate to subleaflike. Pedicels 5-10 mm. Flowers 4-6.5 cm in diam., stellate; buds narrowly ovoid, apex acute to subacuminate. Sepals spreading, equal, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 0.7-1.5 cm × 2.5-7 mm, laminar glands lines, margin entire, apex acute to acutely acuminate. Petals bright golden yellow, sometimes becoming recurved, obovate-oblong to obovate, 2.4-4 × 1.6-2.5 cm, ca. 3 × as long as sepals; margin minutely glandular-denticulate toward apex; apiculus acute. Stamen fascicles each with 35-50 stamens, longest 1.8-2.9 cm, 0.7-0.8 × as long as petals. Ovary ovoid-pyramidal to narrowly ovoid, 6-8 × 4-6 mm; styles 8-10 mm, 1.2-1.35 × as long as ovary, free, erect, slightly outcurved at apex. Capsule ± narrowly ovoid-pyramidal to ovoid, 1.7-2 cm × 8-10 mm, turning bright red during maturation. Seeds dark purplish brown, 2-3.2 mm, narrowly winged; testa nearly smooth. Fl. May-Jul(-?Aug), fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 36*, 40*.

Guangxi, Guizhou.

● Pastures, hillsides, streamsides, among rocks; 1500-2000 m.

Norysca kouytchensis (H. Léveillé) Y. Kimura.