Hypericum polyanthemum
Subshrub 0.1-0.4 m tall, erect or decumbent, branches spreading or divaricate-ascending, lateral, near base or all along stem, very numerous, sometimes naked below. Stems yellow to orange-brown, sharply 4-lined, ancipitous when young, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 2-14(-35) mm long, the upper sometimes exceeding leaves. Leaves sessile, spreading; lamina 3-15 x 0.5-1.5(-2) mm, narrowly oblong to linear, margin revolute, paler beneath, not glaucous, chartaceous, apex obtuse to rounded, base parallel-sided or usually cordate-amplexicaul, not decurrent, free; basal vein 1, sometimes with obscure lateral branches, tertiary reticulum absent; laminar glands dense, prominent beneath. Inflorescence 3-16-flowered, dichasial/monochasial, with lateral branches from up to 3 nodes below, the whole narrowly cylindric; primary pedicels 0.5-3 mm long; bracts and bracteoles triangular-lanceolate to linear-subulate. Flowers 8-12 mm in diam., stellate or slightly obconic; buds ovoid, acute to subacute. Sepals 3.5-4.5(-5) x 1.2-2.4 mm, unequal, imbricate, the outer broadly rhombic-elliptic or ovate-lanceolate to ovate, the inner ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate or oblong, acute to obtuse, margin sometimes recurved; veins 5, only midrib becoming prominent; glands linear, distally punctiform. Petals yellow, tinged red outside, 5-7 x 2.5-4 mm, 1.5-1.7 x sepals, oblong; apiculus obtuse; glands striiform to punctiform. Stamens c. 40-50 (or more?), obscurely 3-5-fascicled, longest (2-)3-4 mm long, 0.5-0.7 x petals. Ovary 1.5-2 x 1 mm, ovoid; styles (3-)4-5, 1-5-2-5 mm long, 1-1-35 x ovary, spreading; stigmas slightly enlarged to distinctly capitate. Capsule 3.5-5 x 2-4 m, ovoid to subglobose, about equalling sepals. Seeds 0.6-0.7 mm long; testa finely ribbed-scalariform.
Grassland and other open, stony, medium-dry to rather wet ground; 10-1300 m.
Brazil (Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul), Uruguay.
H. polyanthemum is a southern derivative of H. brasiliense, sharing with the nearest form of that species the short leaves, narrow inflorescence, and broad sepals. It differs from H. brasiliense in the frequently decumbent, much-branched habit, the revolute, usually cordate-amplexicaul leaves, the broader ovary with styles sometimes reduced to 4 or even 3, and the ovoid to subglobose capsule that rarely exceeds the sepals.