Hypericum gladiatum (Nomenclature)
Shrub, erect, with branches strict, lateral with elongate extension shoots and short determinate laterals, both types flowering, the short shoots occasionally branched pseudo-dichotomously. Stems orange-brown?, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, soon 2-lined, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 3-6 mm long. Leaves sessile, appressed to ascending, markedly tetrastichous, persistent (deciduous with cortex); lamina 7-10 x 1.5-2.5 mm, linear- lanceolate to linear-oblong, plane to loosely incurved, subcucullate, not or slightly carinate, concolorous, not glaucous, subcoriaceous; apex acute, base parallel to rounded, not sheathing, free; basal veins 1(3), unbranched or with 1-2 pairs of ascending near-basal lateral branches, tertiary reticulation not visible or absent; laminar glands rather sparse, not prominent. Inflorescence 1-flowered, occasionally with pseudo-dichotomous branches from node below; pedicel 3-4 mm long, not or scarcely incrassate upwards; upper leaves foliose. Flowers not observed when expanded. Sepals 5.5-7 x 1.5 mm, narrowly lanceolate, acute, subcucullate; veins 5, laterals branching above, with midrib slightly prominent below; glands linear, distally sparsely punctiform or absent. Petals c.8 x 2.5 mm, c. 1.3 x sepals, oblanceolate, apiculus ?; glands?. Stamens c. 60, longest 5.5-6 mm long, c. 0.7 x petals. Ovary not seen; styles 3, c. 3 mm long; stigmas narrowly capitate. Capsule c. 4 x 2-5 mm (? immature), ovoid, shorter than sepals. Seeds not seen.
Habitat details unknown; 2739-2850 m.
Colombia (Boyacá).
H. gladiatum has been collected only once and the label bears no habitat notes. Nevertheless, it is clearly distinct from all other known species, being intermediate in morphology and distribution between 11 . H. simonsii (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, NE. Colombia) on the one hand, and 16. H. roraimense (Roraima massif) and 20. H. asplundii (central Ecuador) on the other. It has smaller leaves and flowers than H. simonsii and also differs from it in the narrow sword-shaped leaves and sepals, the leaves being l(3)-nerved. For differences from H. roraimense and H. asplundii, see pp. xx and xx.