Hypericum terrae-firmae (Nomenclature)
Shrub or small tree, 1-2 m tall, erect, with branches strict, pseudo-dichotomous or lateral. Stems orange-brown, 4-lined when young, soon terete, without corky wrinkles, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 4-6 mm long. Leaves sessile, free from the base, spreading to subimbricate and tetrastichous, deciduous at the base without fading; lamina 16-30 x 4-6 mm, narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, plane, not cucullate or carinate, concolorous, not or slightly glaucous, chartaceous to thinly coriaceous; apex acute, base narrowly cuneate to subangustate, not sheathing, pairs free; basal veins 7, subparallel-sided, with short lateral branches,tertiary reticulation not visible; laminar glands dense, not prominent. Inflorescence 1- flowered, with pseudo-dichotomous branches from 1-2 nodes below; pedicel absent or very short; upper leaves transitional. Flowers 40-60 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 14-22 x 3-7 mm, narrowly oblong, acute; veins 15, dichotomising and reticulate distally, with midrib prominent; glands linear. Petals bright yellow, 20-30 x 7-12 mm, c. 1-3 x sepals, oblanceolate; apiculus acute; glands linear, mostly uninterrupted. Stamens c. 250, longest 9-11 mm long, c. 0.3-0.4 x petals. Ovary (2.5-)3-4.5 X 2-2.5 mm, ± narrowly ovoid; styles 5, 5-7 mm long, 1.4-3 x ovary, erect, outcurved below apex; stigmas small. Capsule 8-10 x 5-7 mm, broadly ovoid, shorter than sepals. Seeds c. 1 mm long, not or shallowly carinate; testa finely scalariform-reticulate .
In open pine or oak-pine forest or pine savannah on granite, often near streams; lowland to 550 m.
Belize (Cayo, Belize).
H. terrae-firmae, as previous authors have pointed out, is closely related to the Cuban H. styphelioides, especially to forms of subsp. clarense; but the thinner, longer, acute leaves, which spread more or less widely from the base, and the large flowers with longer, narrowly oblong sepals, allow the Belize plant to be accorded specific rank. Its nearest ancestral taxon is in East Africa (H. revolutum subsp. keniense (Schweinfurth) N. Robson), a subspecies of Sect. 1 Campylosporus.