Flora-Fauna

Hypericum triquetrifolium Turra

(Farsetia: 12, 1765; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 520; Pl. CLXXXII nº 3; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb, erect, 30–80 cm tall, glabrous, with quadrangular or narrowly winged stems, much branched above.
• Leaves: Sessile, oblong-lanceolate, 10–30 × 2–6 mm, acute or subacute, with numerous pellucid dots; margins entire, eglandular.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence corymbiform, many-flowered. Sepals 4–6 mm, lanceolate, acute, with black punctation and narrow marginal glands. Petals bright yellow, 8–12 mm, longer than sepals, often with black dots along the margin. Stamens numerous, triadelphous, forming three fascicles.
• Fruit: Capsule ovoid, 4–6 mm, with longitudinal striae. Seeds cylindric, finely punctate.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry hillsides, rocky slopes, fallow lands, field margins; low to mid elevations up to 1,400 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Coastal plains, Mount Lebanon foothills, Beqaa Valley (Mouterde).
• Syrian distribution: Damascus plain, Aleppo region, Palmyra, Hauran, Latakia.
• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Baleares, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Sicilia, Sinai, Spain, Tunisia, Türkey, Türkey-in-Europe (POWO).

⚠️ Diagnostic note: Readily recognized by its quadrangular stems, black-dotted sepals, and yellow petals with black marginal spots, separating it from the smaller H. libanoticum and the broader-leaved H. retusum.