Hypericum matangense (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.8 m tall, erect, with branches strict, lateral. Stems orange-brown, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 2-4 mm long. Leaves sessile, spreading from above base, twisting, not tetrastichous?, persistent or sometimes deciduous (breaking off) above base (usually near point of flexure) after fading; lamina 10-13 x 1.1-3 mm, oblanceolate (lower) to linear, involute, not cucullate or carinate, dull ferrugineous above, lucent beneath, not glaucous, subcoriaceous to chartaceous; apex acute, base parallel, not or loosely sheathing, free or united with stem-line apex to form very narrow interfoliar ridge; basal vein 1, impressed beneath, with obscure ascending branches and dense tertiary reticulation; laminar glands dense, visible on both sides, slightly impressed. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal and on lateral branches; pedicel c. 2-3 mm long, slightly incrassate upwards; upper leaves foliose. Flowers c. 25 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 9 x 1.5-2 mm, linear-oblong, acute; veins 3, unbranched ?, not prominent. Petals bright? yellow, 18 x c. 5 mm, c. 2 x sepals, oblanceolate; apiculus acute; glands linear, distally punctiform. Stamens c. 50, longest 9 mm long, c. 0.5 x petals. Ovary 4x2 mm long, ovoid-pyramidal; styles slightly longer than ovary, proximally suberect, distally divergent-incurved; stigmas slightly enlarged. Capsule and seeds not seen.
In scrub paramo; 3300 m.
Ecuador (Morona-Santiago).
H. matangense is known as yet from only one collection, but it is clearly related to H. phellos subsp. marcescens from northern Colombia (Santandér) although more specialised in all characters. Thus the leaves are much narrower and involute-twisted, not plane to apically subconcave, and distinctly discolorous; and the bases are loosely appressed to the stem. The flowers are solitary (in the single known specimen).