''Hypericum pallens'', commonly known as the Pale St. John's wort or

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...

St. John's wort, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Hypericaceae Hypericaceae is a plant family in the order Malpighiales, comprising six to nine genera and up to 700 species, and commonly known as the St. John's wort family. Members are found throughout the world apart from extremely cold or dry habitats. '' ...

which is found in Turkey, Lebanon, and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Description

Similar species

''H. pallens'' is similar in appearance to '' Hypericum ternatum'', but it is less woody and more procumbent. Additionally, the range of ''H. pallens'' is to the east of ''H. ternatum'', and their ranges do not overlap. In addition, the inflorescence of the species is also similar to the inflorescence of several species in the section '' Campylosporus'', especially ''

Hypericum revolutum ''Hypericum revolutum'' is a shrub or small tree in the genus ''Hypericum'' native to Arabia and Africa. It is evergreen, with leaves opposite, closely spaced and crowded at the ends of branches, c. 20 × 5 mm, green to slightly glaucous, se ...

''.

Taxonomy

''H. pallens'' was first published as ''Hypericum cuneatum'' by

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

in the journal Nat. Hist. Aleppo in 1794. The species was later described as ''H. pallens'' by

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

and Daniel Solander. A variant of the species dubbed ''H. pallens'' var. ''maximum'' has been proposed, which would consist of the members of the species with much larger and broader leaves that are found near Antioch, but the subdivision of the species has not been accepted.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in Southern Turkey in

Cilicia Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coas ...

and Amanus, Syria in

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

, and Lebanon along the coastal plain. It is found among hard limestone rocks at elevations of 50–1700 meters.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17812499 pallens Taxa named by Joseph Banks Taxa named by Daniel Solander