Hypericum rubritinctum (Nomenclature)
Shrublet 0.2-0.35 m tall, with taproot, fastigiate, erect; branches lateral and sometimes basal (or none), often opposite, strict. Stems reddish-brown, 4-lined, ancipitous and densely gland-dotted when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 3-20 mm long. Leaves sessile, erect or appressed, ascending or spreading, subimbricate, the upper longer than internodes, the lower shorter, persistent (i.e. deciduous with cortex) or breaking off earlier above base; lamina 6-15 x 1.2-3 mm, linear to narrowly elliptic-oblong, margin revolute, smooth, not cucullate, midrib prominent or not and smooth beneath, paler beneath, and often glaucous above or on both sides, coriaceous; apex subacute, base narrowly cuneate to parallel-sided, free; basal veins 1(3), unbranched, tertiary reticulation absent; laminar glands dense, not prominent or slightly so beneath. Inflorescence (l)3-9-flowered, branching all dichasial/monochasial (or the lowermost pseudo-dichotomous), without subsidiary branches; peduncle and pedicels 2-4 mm long, not incrassate upwards; bracts and bracteoles linear-subulate. Flowers 13-20 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 3.5-4.2 x 1-1.5 mm, subequal, oblong to lanceolate or narrowly ovate, subacute; veins 5-7, unbranched, all becoming prominent; glands all linear or punctiform in upper 1/3. Petals bright yellow, tinged red outside, 8-14 x 2.5-4 mm, 2-3.5 x sepals, oblanceolate; apiculus obsolete; glands few, punctiform. Stamens c. 40, longest 4-5 mm long, c. 0.6 x petals, fascicles 3, subdistinct. Ovary c. 1.5 x 1 mm, narrowly ellipsoid; styles 3, 3.5-4 mm long, c. 2-2.5 x ovary, spreading; stigmas narrowly to rather broadly capitate. Capsule 4-6 x 2-3 mm, ovoid-cylindric, acute, shortly exceeding sepals. Seeds not seen.
Rocky places in Quercus woodland and in Pinus forest; 1700- 2340 m.
Mexico (Guerrero, Mexico).
H. rubritinctum was included in 84. H. gnidioides by Rodriguez Jimenez, but it differs from the latter especially in its longer slender styles (c.f. 78. H. arbuscula) and (both absolutely and relative to the sepals) larger petals, which are red-tinged in bud and become red-veined later. Its other close relative, H. arbuscula, has shorter internodes (particularly below the inflorescence), smaller flowers, and pseudo-dichotomous/sympodial inflorescence branching.