Hypericum microlicioides
Subshrub or woody herb 0.15-0.45 m tall, decumbent and branching at the base, with branches diffuse, lateral or rarely pseudo-dichomotous. Stems dull red-brown, 4-lined when young, soon terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes l.5-10(-30) mm long, shorter to longer than leaves. Leaves sessile, appressed or tardily spreading; lamina 8-20 x 3-6 mm, narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong to lanceolate, plane or usually margin subrevolute, paler (? and reddish) beneath, not glaucous, subcoriaceous; apex acute to obtuse, base cuneate, free; basal or near-basal veins 5-7, midrib pinnately branched, tertiary reticulum lax; laminar glands dense, obscure. Inflorescence 1-flowered, terminal and on lateral branches; pedicels 2-3(-6) mm long; bracts foliar. Flowers 25-30 mm in diam., stellate; buds ovoid, acute. Sepals 8-12 x 2-3 mm, equal, not imbricate, narrowly elliptic to linear, acute to acuminate; veins 7-9, midrib prominent; glands mostly punctiform. Petals yellow, 13-16 x 6-8 mm, 1.2-1.4 x sepals, obovate; apiculus subacute; glands linear, distally absent. Stamens c. 70, 5-fascicled, longest 4-5 mm long, c. 0.3 x petals. Ovary 2.5 x 1 mm, ovoid; styles 5, c. 2 mm long, spreading; stigmas clavate. Capsule and seeds not seen.
Alpine bogs (above tree-line); (950-) 1300-1500 m.
Brazil (Paraná, Santa Catarina).
H. microlicioides is a higher-altitude derivative of H. rigidum subsp. rigidum, more suffruticose or even herbaceous and more diffuse in habit, with leaves usually shorter and usually appressed, shorter pedicels, and fewer, larger flowers. It seems possible that the bitopic distribution is the result of parallel evolution of two populations, but it is more likely due merely to division and isolation of one.