Hypericum chamaemyrtus (Nomenclature)
Subshrub 0.5-1 m tall, erect or decumbent at the base; branches from near base or very rarely lateral, strict and sometimes ascending. Stems reddish-brown, 4-lined, markedly ancipitous and eglandular? when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 2-14(-20) mm long. Leaves pseudopetiolate with pseudopetiole up to 1 mm long or subsessile, spreading from base or outcurving to suberect, longer than internodes, deciduous above base without fading; lamina 8-22 x 1.5-11 mm, broadly ovate or elliptic to very narrowly elliptic-oblong or lanceolate or (lower) oblanceolate, margin recurved (plane in narrowest, young leaves), not cucullate, midrib prominent beneath or not, not glaucous, somewhat paler beneath, coriaceous; apex acute or apiculate to obtuse, base broadly cuneate or rounded to angustate, not sheathing, the pair free; basal veins 1(3), with or without 1-4 pairs of main ascending lateral branches, tertiary reticulation obscure or absent; laminar glands dense, not prominent. Inflorescence 1-c. 30-flowered, branching dichasial/monochasial or pseudo-dichotomous/sympodial or mixed, occasionally with 1-2 pairs of subsidiary branches from node immediately below; peduncle and pedicels 3-8 mm long, not incrassate upward; bracts foliar, gradually reduced. Flowers 10-16 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 4-9.5 x 1.2-4 mm, unequal, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate or elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, acute to acuminate; veins 3-5(7), not or distally branched, all becoming slightly prominent; glands all linear or punctiform in upper 1/3-2/3. Petals bright? to pale yellow, 6.5-10 x 3.5-8 mm, 1.3-1.9 x sepals, obovate; apiculus acuminate to obtuse; glands linear, distally interrupted or punctiform. Stamens 35-80, longest 4-6 mm long, 0.5-0.75 x petals, fascicles not distinct. Ovary 2-3 x 1-1.5 mm, ellipsoid; styles 3, 2.5-3.5 mm long, 1.2-1.7 x ovary, spreading-incurving; stigmas broadly capitate to peltate. Capsule 5-7 x 2.5-4 mm, narrowly ovoid to cylindric-ellipsoid, shorter than sepals. Seeds 0.6-0.8 mm; testa finely scalarif orm-reticulate.
In paramo and in dense woods and damp meadows below; 1700-3290 m.
Colombia (Boyacá, Cundinamarca); Venezuela (Lara, Trujillo).
H. chamaemyrtus is related to H. cymobrathys but is less woody, and the leaves usually have pinnate not parallel venation. Occasionally, however, they have 3 basal leaf veins. The pseudopetiolate leaf base also indicates the relationship with H. cymobrathys. The inflorescence, however, is usually laxer than in that species. The Sachica (Boyacá) population, with broad, sharply acute, 3-nerved leaves, is morphologically closest to H. cymobrathys. H. chamaemyrtus occurs in two isolated populations. The Colombian one (from southern Boyacá to central Cundinamarca) is taller with inflorescence branches longer and ultimately dichasial/mono-chasial and leaves ovate to very narrowly elliptic-oblong, acute to obtuse, definitely pseudo- petiolate and eventually spreading; whereas the Venezuelan population is shorter, less richly branched above, with elliptic, usually mucronate, and often subsessile leaves that remain suberect, and the inflorescence branches are wholly pseudo-dichotomous. There is, however, a certain degree of overlap in variation between these populations that prevents their recognition as species.