Hypericum laricifolium (Nomenclature)
Shrub or small tree (0.l-)0.3-3(-6) m tall, bushy or lax and spreading, with branches erect to spreading, lateral, short (flowering) and long, narrowly to broadly conical (extension). Stems 4-lined when young, eventually terete, blackish-brown, without epidermal emergences, cortex exfoliating in strips or irregular flakes; internodes 1.5-5 mm long. Leaves sessile, spreading or erect, sometimes imbricate, not markedly tetrastichous, persistent; lamina (2-)3-6(-8) x 0.3-2.2 mm, narrowly elliptic or narrowly elliptic-oblong to acerose, conduplicate to incurved, with midrib impressed beneath, margin narrowly hyaline and plane or subundulate, not glaucous, chartaceous to coriaceous; apex subacute to obtuse, cucullate, base narrowly cuneate to angustate, loosely clasping or not, pairs united to form narrow interfoliar ridge; basal vein 1, not or obscurely branched; laminar glands dense, scattered or in 1 row, impressed, usually visible beneath only. Inflorescence 1-flowered, on short lateral branches, rarely branching pseudo-dichotomously; pedicel 1.5-5 mm long; upper leaves foliose. Flowers 15-25(-30) mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 3-7 x 0.7-2.2 mm, oblong or elliptic to narrowly ovate or lanceolate, subacute to acute, cucullate, margin hyaline; veins 7-9, not or scarcely branched, midrib distally incrassate; glands linear, distally punctiform. Petals bright golden yellow to orange-yellow, 7-14(-22) x 4-10 mm, 2-3 x sepals, very obliquely, obovate; apiculus obtuse; glands striiform and punctiform. Stamens 70-110, longest 4-7 mm long, c. 0.5 x petals. Ovary 2-3.5 x 0.8-1.5 mm, ellipsoid; styles 3, 4-9 mm long, 2-4.5 x ovary, spreading; stigmas scarcely to narrowly capitateCapsule4-7 x 3-4 mm, ovoid to subglobose, equalling or exceeding sepals. Seeds 0-8-1 mm long,ecarinate; testa finely scalariform.
In the subpáramo and páramo, in open or more usually sheltered habitats, well- drained or not; 2200-4300 m.
From western Venezuela (Lara, Trujillo, Mérida, Zulia) along the Cordilleras Central and Oriental of Colombia and Ecuador to central Peru (Huanuco, Ancash).
H. laricifolium is closely related toH. thuyoides, and one collection from Cauca (Fernandez Perez 7159) is intermediate in some characters. Nearly always, however, H. laricifolium can be distinguished by the narrow rounded leaves with impressed midrib and straight margin.
H. laricifolium is very variable, but the variation appears to be continuous and not amenable to classification. From northern Ecuador and adjacent Colombia, where the leaves are relatively broad, there are clines north and south towards shorter, narrower, more densely imbricate leaves and smaller flowers with narrower, more acute sepals:
(i) North-eastward along the Cordillera Central to Venezuela; the extreme form from Boyacá north-eastward looks very different, with young shoots densely clothed with appressed leaves ('H. laricoides') . Both the typical form and 'H. laricoides' occur in Boyacá and some parts of Cundinamarca, the latter favouring damper habitats. In other parts of Cundinamarca (e.g. Páramo de Guasca) and in Caldas, Risaralda, and Tolima, however, there is a continuous series of intermediate forms that does not allow the recognition even of subspecies.
(ii) Southward through Ecuador to central Peru (Huanuco, Ancash) the leaves become gradually narrower and smaller, but not markedly imbricate, except for some populations from northern Peru.