Hypericum castellanoi (Nomenclature)
Shrub or shrublet 0.15-1 m tall, erect to ascending, with branches ascending, lateral, rooting at the base. Stems orange-brown, 4-angled when young, eventually 2-lined to subterete, cortex eventually exfoliating in strips; internodes 3-6 mm long. Leaves sessile, spreading or outcurving from base, twisting, not tetrastichous, persistent; lamina 12-17 x 0.7-1.2 mm, linear, incurved at first, becoming plane, not cucullate or carinate, concolorous, not glaucous, chartaceous; apex acute, base parallel-sided, not sheathing, free; basal vein impressed beneath, unbranched; laminar glands almost 2-ranked, visible on both sides, not or scarcely impressed. Inflorescence 1 -flowered, terminal and on 1-4 short lateral branches from c. 3-5 nodes below; pedicel 1-4 mm long, incrassate upwards; upper leaves foliose. Flowers c. 8 mm in diam.?, stellate. Sepals 3.5-5 x 0.5-0.6 mm, linear, acute; veins 3, unbranched, not or slightly prominent. Petals bright ? yellow, 6-7 x 1.5-2 mm, c. 1.5 x sepals, narrowly oblanceolate, apiculus apiculate; glands linear, interrupted distally. Stamens c. 20-24, longest 3-4 mm long, c. 0.5 x petals. Ovary 1.5-2.5 x 1-1.5 mm, narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid; styles 3(4), 2-3.5 mm long, c. 1.4 x ovary, proximally suberect, distally spreading; stigmas broadly capitate. Capsule and seeds not seen.
Open places among shrubs or in forest; 2300-2360 m.
Colombia (Boyacá), Venezuela (Mérida).
H. castellanoi is related to 18. H. espinalii but has a more slender spreading habit with much narrower leaves. The two collections, which are from localities some 500 km apart, are not identical. The Colombian one is from an undershrub up to 1 m tall with dull leaves, the styles being c. 2 mm long with broadly capitate stigmas and the ovary c. 1.5 x 1 mm. The Venezuelan specimen is only 0.15 m tall with sublucent leaves, the styles being c. 3-5 mm long with rather narrowly capitate stigmas and the ovary c. 2-5 x 1-5 mm. Only further collecting will reveal if these differences are significant.