Hypericum interior Small
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Detail
- Family
- Hypericaceae
- Botanical Name
- Hypericum interior Small
- Common Name
- Interior Bushy St. John's-wort
- Synonym(s)
- Hypericum densiflorum Pursh var. interior (Small) Sorrie & Weakley
- Flora of Virginia Name/Status
- Hypericum interior Small
- Comments
- Identified by Bruce Sorrie from specimens (Fleming 15733 at VPI) collected in Sept. 2012 at Barnes Chapel fen in Washington County. Specimens previously collected at this site had been variously called Hypericum densiflorum and H. prolificum. This taxon is closely related to H. densiflorum but differs in its narrower, linear-elliptic leaves and its affiliation with calcareous wetlands (vs. highly oligotrophic wetlands with H. densiflorum). The distinction is thus ecologically strong but morphologically fairly minor. Although Small treated this as a species decades ago, it was generally subsumed in H. densiflorum until Weakley et al. (2011) brought it out of obscurity as a variety. Now, Flora of the Southeast U.S. (Weakley et al. 2023) states that it is "better treated as a species." Hypericum interior is primarily distributed in the southern Ridge and Valley, it ranges from c. AL and nw. GA to e. and c. TN and sw. VA.
- Habitat
- Known from a single, shrubby, calcareous fen in Washington County. Rare, mountains (s. Ridge and Valley region). Associated with Thuja occidentalis, Salix sericea, and Rhamnus alnifolia. Dominant herbaceous species at the site include Carex interior, Rhynchospora capillacea, and Parnassia grandifolia.
- Native Status
- Native
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