Hypericum styphelioides (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0-15-2 m tall, erect, with branches erect, strict, pseudo-dichotomous or lateral. Stems orange-brown, 4-lined when young, soon terete, without epidermal wrinkles, cortex exfoliating in strips or scales; internodes 2-6 mm long. Leaves sessile, spreading from above the base to closely imbricate and tetrastichous, deciduous at the base without fading; lamina 5-25 x 2-8 mm, narrowly obovate to narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong, plane or incurved, sometimes ± concave, not carinate, concolorous, lightly to densely glaucous, thinly to thickly coriaceous; apex shortly acuminate to acute, base cuneate to scarcely angustate, not or slightly sheathing, pairs free; basal veins 5-9(-11), subparallel to flabellate, branching distally to form a lax reticulum, tertiary reticulum not visible; laminar glands dense, ± prominent. Inflorescence l(2)-flowered, with pseudo-dichotomous branches from 1-2 nodes below, sometimes with additional branches from immediately lower node ; pedicel absent or very short; upper leaves transitional. Flowers 15-50(-70) mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 5-15 x 2-5 mm, oblong or lanceolate to obovate, acute or obtuse-apiculate to obtuse; veins 5-17, dichotomising, and reticulating distally, with midrib prominent beneath; glands linear, sometimes distally punctiform. Petals bright yellow, (8-)10-22 x 2-10 mm, c. 1-5 x sepals, oblanceolate; apiculus acute; glands linear, uninterrupted. Stamens c. 70-200, longest 5-9 mm long, c. 0.3-0.5 x petals. Ovary 2-4 x 1.5-3 mm, ovoid to rostrate-subglobose; styles (4)5, 3-5 mm long, 1-2-1-5 x ovary, erect, outcurved below apex; stigmas small. Capsule (3-)4-8 x 2-7 mm, ovoid-subglobose, shorter than sepals. Seeds c. 1 mm long, not or shallowly carinate; testa finely scalariform-reticulate.
In pine forest or pine savannah or often on sterile white sands, especially round margins of lakes and pools; 0-800 m.
Cuba (Pinar del Rio, Las Villas, Oriente, Isla de Pinos).
Three subspecies ofH, styphelioides have been recognised. Subsp. clarense, the most similar toH. terrae-firmae, has a disjunct distribution (central Cuba, western Cuba, Isla de Pinos), whilst the others are respectively eastern (subsp. moaense) and western (subsp. styphelioides).