Hypericum formosissimum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malpighiales |
Family: | Hypericaceae |
Genus: | Hypericum |
Section: | Hypericum sect. Adenosepalum |
Species: | H. formosissimum |
Binomial name | |
Hypericum formosissimum | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Hypericum formosissimum is a species of flowering plant in the St John's wort family Hypericaceae. Found in the cracks of limestone rocks, it is a small perennial herb that grows in a pillow-like shape, has yellow flower petals, and blooms in the late summer. The plant is rare and has a limited habitat in Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. It is threatened by rock collapses, urbanization, and road construction; it is not protected by conservation efforts.
The species was first described as Hypericum formosum by Soviet-Armenian botanist Armen Takhtajan and was later excluded from a genus-wide monograph of Hypericum by English botanist Norman Robson. When the species was reviewed by Robson, he was uncertain whether it belonged in section Origanifolia or section Adenosepalum . In a 2013 online publication, Robson placed the species in a Hypericum huber-morathii group within section Adenosepalum alongside several related species.
Hypericum formosissimum is a perennial herb that grows 3–10 centimetres (1.2–3.9 inches) tall. It is a glabrous plant, meaning it lacks small hairs on its surfaces, and it grows in a pulviniform , or pillow-like, shape. The plant has many slender and brittle stems that grow in straggling directions. The leaves grow from nodes spaced 0.3–1.4 cm (0.12–0.55 in) from each other along the stems. The leaves are attached by a short petiole, or leaf stalk, that is 0.2–0.3 cm (0.079–0.118 in) long, and the laminae, or leaf blades, are 0.3–1.0 cm (0.12–0.39 in) long and 0.3–0.8 cm (0.12–0.31 in) wide with an almost leathery (subcoriaceous) texture. Each leaf has an apex, or tip, that is obtuse (rounded) and a base in the shape of a wide wedge (broadly cuneate) that sometimes can be truncate, meaning that the base can be completely squared off. The two obscure pairs of lateral veins branch out from the part of the midrib closest to the base of the leaf. There are black glands spaced out across the surface of the leaf. [3]
Each inflorescence (flower cluster) has between one and five flowers from a single terminal node at the end of a stem. The buds are globose, or roughly spherical. The flowers are 1.0–1.2 cm (0.39–0.47 in) wide and have bracteoles (small bract-like structures) with black glands below them. The sepals are 0.2–0.25 cm (0.079–0.098 in) long and 0.1–0.15 cm (0.039–0.059 in) wide, with a single large vein and pale amber and black glands. [3] Species in Hypericum have between 4 and 6 petals. [4] The petals of H. formosissimum are pale yellow, 0.6–0.8 cm (0.24–0.31 in) long and 0.2–0.5 cm (0.079–0.197 in) wide, with a rounded tip and pale glands. The flowers have 18–20 stamens, the longest of which is around 0.5–0.6 cm (0.20–0.24 in) long. The styles are two to three times as long as than the ovary, and the seed capsule is around 0.3 cm (0.12 in) long with several partial vittae. The seeds are brown and measure 0.1–0.3 cm (0.039–0.118 in), and have small linear pits on their surface. [3] Hypericum formosissimum flowers in June and July and fruits from July to August. [5] [6]
Unlike most species in the genus Hypericum, H. formosissimum does not contain both hypericin and pseudohypericin in its chemical profile. It contains only pseudohypericin, which is present at similar levels to other related species like H. annulatum and H. montanum . [7] The species does possess slight traces of mangiferin and moderate traces of isomangiferin. [8]
One origin of the genus name Hypericum is that it is derived from the Greek words hyper (above) and eikon (picture), in reference to the tradition of hanging the plant over religious icons in the home. [9] The specific epithet formosissimum derives from the superlative form of formosus , which means "beautiful" or "finely formed". [10] In Turkish, the species is known as bitlis kantaronu, sharing a name with the Anatolian city and province of Bitlis. [11] [12]
The species was first described in 1937 as Hypericum formosum by Soviet-Armenian botanist Armen Takhtajan in the botanical series of the Soviet academic journal Izvestiia Akademii Nauk SSSR. [2] This name was illegitimate, because German botanist Carl Sigismund Kunth had already validly published the accepted species Hypericum formosum in 1822. [13] In 1940, Takhtajan corrected his illegitimate name in a publication in Zametki po Sistematike i Geografii Rastenii , creating the new combination Hypericum formosissimum. [1]
Hypericum formosissimum was originally excluded from a comprehensive monograph of the genus Hypericum by English botanist Norman Robson, along with the related species H. huber-morathii and H. minutum . [14] [15] The species was later addressed by Robson in 1993 and 1996. In 1993, he acknowledged that the species should be treated as part of sect. Adenosepalum. However, he also stated that removing H. formosissimum, the aforementioned related species, and several other species related to Hypericum elodeoides would lead to a "purified" sect. Adenosepalum forming a "natural group" of species. [16] In 1996, he then advocated for their inclusion in sect. Origanifolia based on the structure of their vittae which would relate them most closely to Hypericum aviculariifolium in the latter section. [17]
In an online edition of the monograph published in 2013, the species was included by Norman Robson and his colleague David Pattinson within a "Huber-morathii group" inside sect. Adenosepalum. There, it was proposed that H. formosissimum was an "extreme development" of sect. Adenosepalum because of its pillow-shaped growth pattern and almost threadlike stems. In the online classification, the placement of Hypericum formosissimum was summarized as follows: [3]
In Turkey, Hypericum formosissimum is only found in the Yukarı Murat-Van region of eastern Anatolia. [12] It also grows in Armenia and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan. [3] Across its distribution, the species can be found in the cracks between limestone rocks at elevations of 1,500–1,900 metres (4,900–6,200 feet). [3] [5]
Hypericum formosissimum is a part of the Atropatenian Subprovince in the Irano-Turanian floristic region, an area characterized by high numbers of endemic species. [18] The species has been noted to be a part of a plant community centered around the flowering plant Eremurus spectabilis. It can be found alongside species like Melilotus officinalis (yellow melilot), Lotus corniculatus (bird's-foot trefoil), and Campanula glomerata (clustered bellflower). [Note 1] [19]
When the plant is cultivated, it is grown in sunny and dry areas with protection from winter dampness. It can be grown in poor, well-drained soil. Propagation is undertaken by seeding in springtime; the seed is covered with a small amount of soil and left to germinate for 1–3 months. Division is done in the spring while cuttings are taken in the late summer. [5]
Hypericum formosissimum was listed in the Red Data Book of Armenia as a Rare species, but it was not included in the CITES treaty or the Berne Convention. It has a limited distribution of less than 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi) with only three localities in Armenia, one in Azerbaijan, and one in Turkey. It is threatened by natural factors like collapsing rocks, as well as human factors like urbanization and road construction. As of 2016, no conservation action had been taken, but an ecological advocacy group has called for the protection of a locality near Areni, Armenia, as a nature monument. [6]
Hypericum aegypticum is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) which is native to the Eastern Mediterranean. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in the second volume of his Species Plantarum in 1753, who named it after Egypt despite it not being distributed there. The plant is commonly known as shrubby St. John's wort or Egyptian St. John's wort in English. Like other members of section Adenotrias, it is found among limestone rocks in coastal areas. While it has been evaluated as threatened on the island of Malta, the species has no legal protections.
Hypericum annulatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae. It is a perennial herb of varying heights which grows upright, with more than a hundred flowers of a golden yellow color. First described in 1827, the species has a wide distribution from Eastern Europe to East Africa, and its appearance can vary greatly based on its geographic location. It has been used in Bulgarian folk medicine, and has more recently been investigated for its effectiveness in slowing the growth of or killing certain types of human cancer.
Hypericum collinum is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae which is found in Mexico.
Hypericum bupleuroides is a species of perennial flowering plant in the St John's wort family, Hypericaceae. It grows 45–80 centimeters tall, and notably has perfoliate leaves that are fused at the stem. It has pyramid-shaped flower clusters of 1 to 25 flowers with yellow petals in a star-shaped arrangement. The species is found along the Black Sea coast near the Turkish–Georgian border. Hypericum bupleuroides has a small distribution and specific habitat requirements that make it vulnerable to environmental pressures.
Adenotrias is a section of flowering plants in the family Hypericaceae. It is made up of Hypericum aciferum, H. aegypticum, and H. russeggeri. When it was first described, it was considered its own independent genus, but was later placed under Hypericum and demoted to a section. Its Latin name Adenotrias is made of the Greek prefix adeno- and the Latin word trias. Species in the section are shrubs up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall with smooth leaves and bark, and are the only species in Hypericum with heterostylous flowers. They are found around the Mediterranean coast, with H. aciferum restricted to the island of Crete and H. russeggeri present only in parts of Turkey and Syria. Plants of the section have a habitat among limestone and other calcareous rocks. While H. aegypticum has a wide and generally secure distribution, H. aciferum was evaluated as endangered several times since the 1980s, although it is now considered only vulnerable because it is protected in part by a plant micro-reserve near Agia Roumeli.
Hypericum sect. Adenosepalum is one of 36 sections in the genus Hypericum. Its type species is Hypericum montanum.
Hypericum sechmenii, or Seçmen's St John's wort, is a rare species of flowering plant of the St John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in the Eskişehir Province of central Turkey. It was first described in 2009 by Turkish botanists Atila Ocak and Onur Koyuncu, who named the species in honor of Özcan Seçmen, a fellow botanist. They assigned the species to the genus Hypericum, and Norman Robson later placed H. sechmenii into the section Adenosepalum.
Hypericum huber-morathii is a species of flowering plant in the St John's wort family Hypericaceae. It is a small perennial herb with few stems. It has narrow and brittle stems, thick leaves, flowers in clusters of varying numbers, small yellow petals, around twenty stamens, and three styles. H. huber-morathii is closely related to H. minutum and H. sechmenii, and also shares characteristics with H. lanuginosum. The plant is endemic to Turkey, and is found among limestone rocks in a limited region of southwestern Anatolia. Originally excluded from a comprehensive monograph of Hypericum, the species' placement within the genus is unclear. It has been placed in both section Adenosepalum and section Origanifolium.
Hypericum heterophyllum is a flowering plant in the Hypericaceae family and is the only species in Hypericum sect. Heterophylla.
Hypericum minutum is a species of flowering plant in the St John's wort family Hypericaceae. It is a small perennial herb that grows in tufts. It has slender and brittle stems, flowers in clusters of one to three, yellow petals with black and amber glands, few stamens, and a seed capsule with narrow grooves. H. minutum is closely related to H. huber-morathii and H. sechmenii and resembles a smaller form of the latter plant. The plant is endemic to Turkey, and is found among limestone rocks in a limited region of southwestern Anatolia. Originally excluded from a comprehensive monograph of Hypericum, the species' placement within the genus is unclear. It has been placed in both section Adenosepalum and section Origanifolium.
Hypericum collenetteae is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in Saudi Arabia.
Hypericum coadunatum is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in the Canary Islands.
Hypericum psilophytum is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in Morocco and Algeria.
Hypericum scruglii is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in Sardinia.
Hypericum somaliense is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in Somalia.
Hypericum tomentosum is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae) that is found in the western Mediterranean.
Hypericum decaisneanum is a species of flowering plant in the St John's wort family Hypericaceae. Named for French botanist Joseph Decaisne, it is a small perennial herb that grows mostly upright. It has thick, papery leaves and up to twenty flowers with bright yellow petals. Endemic to the Jebel al Akhdar province of Libya, H. decaisneanum is found in the cracks of limestone rocks on steep escarpments. It is a member of numerous plant communities and associations of chasmophytes, of which it is sometimes a key species. First described in 1899, the species was originally placed in section Taeniocarpium of the genus Hypericum, but more recently it has been considered a member of section Adenosepalum.
Hypericum elodeoides, commonly called the Himalayan St. John's Wort, is a species of flowering plant of the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae).
Hypericum iwatelittorale, originally styled Hypericum iwate-littorale, is a species of flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae. Named for its habitat in the coastal regions of the Iwate Prefecture in Japan, little is known about the ecology and conservation status of the plant. The species is a small perennial herb with five bright yellow petals on its up to thirty flowers. It has many stamens, and an array of pale and black glands on its leaves, sepals, and petals. Described in 1937 by Hideo Koidzumi, it has at times been considered a synonym of Hypericum pseudopetiolatum. However, it was affirmed to be a valid species in 2003 and was placed into the type section of Hypericum, with its similarities to H. tosaense being noted.