Hypericum cumulicola
Perennial herb 0.2-0.7(-0.75) m, erect, glabrous, with branches at or just below ground level, each unbranched below inflorescence. Stems green, 4-lined, rather sparsely gland-dotted; internodes (mature) 3-11 mm long, exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile, subulate, appressed (squamiform and spreading in juvenile stems); lamina (l-)2.5-4 x 0.2-0.3 mm, linear-subulate, margin incurved, concolorous, not glaucous, subcoriaceous; apex acute, base parallel-sided, not decurrent, free; basal vein 1, unbranched; lamina glands in c. 2 lines, not prominent. Inflorescence up to c. 13-flowered, monochasial after 1st grade, sometimes with up to c. 9-flowered dichasial/monochasial or wholly monochasial branches from 1-2 lower nodes, without subsidiary flowering branches below, the whole subcorymbiform; pedicels 0.5-1 mm long: bracts 1-1.5 mm long, subulate. Flowers c. 3-4 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 1.5-2 x 0.6-1 mm, unequal, ovate to elliptic or narrowly oblong, acute to subacute; veins 5, unbranched, all slightly prominent, midrib often apically indurated-cucullate; glands linear; margin irregularly ciliolate to entire. Petals yellow, 3.5-5 x 1.3-1.7 mm, c. 2.5 x sepals, obovate-oblong; apiculus subacute; glands linear, interrupted distally. Stamens 20-25, longest 1.5-2 mm long, c. 0.4 x petals. Ovary c. 2 x 0.5 mm, narrowly ovoid-pyramidal; styles 3, 1.5-2 mm long, 0.75-1 x ovary, spreading; stigmas capitate. Capsule (3.5-)4-6 x 1-1.5 mm, narrowly ovoid-conic, apex subrostrate, exceeding sepals. Seeds 0.5-0.6 mm long, not or scarcely carinate; testa scalariform-reticulate.
2n = 12 (Webb, 1980).
Scrub or ancient white-sand dunes; lowland.
South-eastern U.S.A. (Florida).
Webb followed Adams in comparing the highly reduced H. cumulicola with the equally reduced H. gentianoides, and Rodriguez Jimenez included it in that species. The habit and floral details of H. cumulicola, however, are not very like those of H. gentianoides (except possibly the conical capsule); they are much more similar to H. setosum, which has the same unusual chromosome number. Indeed the ciliola on the sepal margin of H. cumulicola can be interpreted as the last remains of the indumentum of H. setosum. Both species grow on sandy soils, but H. cumulicola inhabits drier areas than does H. setosum. H. cumulicola occurs only in the white wind-deposited sands of the Central Florida range, from southern Highlands Co. north to the vicinity of Frostproof, Polk Co. Its very restricted habitat is under threat from 'the bulldozer and the citrus grove' (Ward, 1980: 34).