惠林花 hui lin hua

Hypericum ellipticifolium H. L. Li, J. Arnold Arbor. 25: 307. 1944.

Suffrutex 0.3-0.6 m tall, erect, cespitose or from short creeping and rooting base; stems few, slender, sometimes branched above. Stems terete, eglandular. Leaves sessile; blade elliptic, 3-5 × 1.5-3 cm; thickly papery, abaxially paler, not glaucous; abaxial laminar glands very small, irregular, dense; adaxial laminar glands linear, curved-parallel from base, alternating with veinlike narrower glands; intramarginal glands rather dense; main lateral veins 2-3(-4)-paired, tertiary reticulation lax, only main veins visible (and prominent) below; base rounded, margin recurved, apex rounded to subretuse, often obtusely apiculate. Inflorescence 5-7-flowered, subumbelliform, terminal; peduncle absent; bracts and bracteoles narrowly triangular, persistent. Pedicels ca. 8 mm. Flowers ca. 1.5 cm in diam., ?deeply cupped; buds elliptic, apex obtuse. Sepals erect in bud, reflexed in fruit, narrowly triangular-lanceolate, equal, 6-7 × ca. 2 mm; laminar glands lines, usually 2 between each vein; marginal glands absent; margin entire, apex narrowly acute to acuminate; veins 5. Petals white, oblong-obovate, 1-1.2 cm × 3-4 mm, ca. 2 × as long as sepals; laminar glands lines to streaks; marginal glands absent; margin entire, with apiculus lateral, very short. Stamens 11-15, apparently 3-fascicled (5 + 3 + 3 to 6 + 5 + 4), longest 8-9 mm, ca. 0.75 × as long as petals. Fasciclodes 3, very small, lenticular. Ovary ovoid; styles ca. 2 mm, ca. 0.4 × as long as ovary, free, distally spreading. Capsule ovoid, ca. 7 × 4 mm, ca. as long as sepals. Seeds dark brown, ca. 0.6 mm; testa finely foveolate. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Grassy slopes; 1800-2200 m. NW Yunnan (Dulong Jiang-Nu Jiang divide).

Lianthus is named after Li Hui-lin, who described its sole species as a Hypericum. It differs from Hypericum, however, in several characters, e.g., in having fasciclodes and white petals and, most notably, in its two systems of foliar glands. It is related to Triadenum but is more primitive in most respects.