Hypericum costaricense (Nomenclature)
Shrub or shrublet0.2-0.6 m tall , erect or ascending, forming dense rounded clumps, with branches strict, pseudo-dichotomous and lateral. Stems orange-brown, 4-angled and ancipitous when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 2-4 mm long. Leaves sessile, ± imbricate to suberect, spreading to outcurving and twisting, ± markedly tetrastichous when young, deciduous above base without fading; lamina 5-15 x 0.6-1 mm, linear-elliptic to linear, incurved-canaliculate, not or scarcely cucullate, midrib impressed beneath, margin rather broadly hyaline, concolorous, lucent or often glaucous, subcoriaceous; apex acute to subacute, base parallel-sided, scarcely broadening, pairs forming narrow interfoliar ridge; basal vein 1, unbranched; laminar glands ± dense, clearly visible beneath. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal, with pseudo-dichotomous branches from node below; pedicel 3-4 mm long, rather slender, not incrassate upwards; upper leaves not transitional. Flowers 15-20 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 5-7 x 0.8-1.6 mm, narrowly oblong to narrowly triangular-lanceolate, sharply acute, margin hyaline, veins 5(7), unbranched, midrib or all sometimes prominent; glands linear, distally punctiform. Petals bright yellow to orange-yellow, 6-9(?-13) x 3-4 mm, c. 1.3xsepals, oblong-obovate; apiculus sharply acute; glands linear, distally punctiform. Stamens c. 40-50, longest 5-6 mm long, c. 0.65 -0-75 x petals. Ovary c. 1.5-2 x 1-1.5 mm, ellipsoid; styles 3, 1.2-2 mm long, 0.7-1.5 x ovary, erect; stigmas narrowly to broadly capitate. Capsule 4.5 x 2.5-3 mm, ovoid-ellipsoid, obtuse to rounded, shorter than sepals. Seeds 0.7-1 mm long, ecarinate; testa finely scalariform-reticulate.
In open paramo on rocky, often volcanic slopes; (900-)2440-3700 m.
Costa Rica (San José, Alajuela, Cartago, Limón, Puntas Arenas), Panama (Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro), Colombia (Bolivar?, Antioquía).
H. costaricense is related to 47. H. sprucei, having similar markedly incurved leaves, but they are not cucullate and no more than subcoriaceous. Moreover, the flowers are smaller, with shorter styles and capitate stigmas. In a specimen from the highest point of the Pan-American Highway on the Talamanca Range (J. & C. Taylor 11757 (NY)) the leaves are broader, the flowers larger, and the styles longer than in the other specimens. It seems probable that the suggestion on the label is correct, i.e. that it is the hybrid H. irazuense x H. costaricense. The two Colombian collections belong to H. costaricense despite the disjunct distribution and the lower altitude of Pennell 4205, which is a dwarf shrub (0.1-0.15 m tall) with numerous lateral branches, leaves relatively long (c. 10 mm), recurving markedly and twisting, flowers that are relatively small for the species but nevertheless fall within its range of variation, and stigmas that are broadly capitate. It resembles a dwarf version of the (primitive) Panamanian form ofH. costaricense and appears to be a reduction along a different line from that leading to H. bryoides. The other Antioquía collection (Boeke & McElroy 229) is taller but otherwise similar.