Hypericum gramineum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Protologue: Fl. ins. austr. prodr.: 53 (1786).

Synonyms

From India, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China (Yunnan), to Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. In Malesia only in New Guinea.

In Papua New Guinea, Simbu province, the leaves are chewed with traditional ash salt daily to treat malarial fever.

Perennial or annual herb, (3-)5-72 cm tall, with erect or decumbent stems, branching strictly from the base or unbranched, not rooting.
Leaves usually lanceolate to linear or oblong, 4-25 mm × 1-8 mm, with 1-3 basal veins, without reticulate venation, laminar glands pale, sessile.
Inflorescence lax, 1-30-flowered.
Flowers (5-)6-12(-15) mm in diameter, sepals 2.8-7.5(-9) mm × 0.8-2 mm, free, 3-5 veined, often with prominent midrib, laminar glands pale, petals 5-10 mm × 2-5 mm, persistent, pale yellow to orange, without glands, stamens 30-50, ovary 1-celled, placentas 3, parietal, styles divergent.
Fruit narrowly ovoid to cylindrical; seeds minute, cylindrical, longitudinally ribbed with striae, not carinate.

H. gramineum is found in humid to dry localities, but always in open and well-drained habitats, from sea-level to 2600 m altitude.

[600] Holdsworth, D.K., 1989. High altitude medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 27(2): 95-100.
[1238] Robson, N.K.B., 1974. Hypericum. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 8. Sijthoff & Noordhoff International Publishers, Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. pp. 14-29.
[1243] Robson, N.K.B., 1996. Guttiferae. In: Huang, T.-C. (Editor): Flora of Taiwan. 2nd Edition. Vol. 2. Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 694-714.