Hypericum sarawagedicum (Nomenclature)
Shrub or shrublet, 0.1-0.2 m tall, bushy, ericoid, with branches strict, lateral, creeping and rooting at the base. Stems 4-lined when young, soon 2-lined, eventually terete, eglandular. Leaves sessile; lamina 2-9 x 0.5-3 mm, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic to linear, concolorous, not glaucous, incurved and proximally slightly carinate, imbricate-appressed, rarely distally outcurving; apex rounded, base narrowly cuneate; venation: c. 3 pairs of main lateral veins, curved-parallel, unbranched except near apex and margin, without noticeable tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes interrupted to punctiform near apex and margin, rarely mostly striiform to punctiform; intramarginal glands spaced, pale only or pale and black. Inflorescence 1-flowered, with flowering branches from scattered axils down stem; pedicels 2-4(-8) mm long in fruit. Flowers 10-27 mm in diam., stellate or usually obconic; buds narrowly ovoid-cylindric, subacute to rounded. Sepals 3.5-8 x 1-3 mm, imbricate or not, equal, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic to narrowly oblong, subacute to rounded, entire; veins 7-9, forked and distally branched; laminar glands pale, all or mostly linear or rarely punctate; inframarginal to marginal glands pale only or pale and black. Petals dark to pale yellow, sometimes tinged red dorsally, 7-15 x 3-6 mm, c. 2 x sepals, obovate-oblong to oblanceolate- spathulate, rounded, apiculus absent or almost so; laminar glands pale, linear, sometimes interrupted distally; marginal glands absent or rarely few, black, prominent. Stamens not obviously 3-fascicled, (13)20-30, longest 4-7 (-9) mm, c. 0.5-0.75 x petals; anther gland amber or black. Ovary 2-3 x c. 1 .5 mm, ovoid, acute; styles 3, 1 .5- 2.5 mm long, 0.5-0.65 x ovary, divergent; stigmas narrowly to scarcely capitate; placentae 3, intrusive parietal. Capsule (5.5-)6-9 x 3.5-5 mm, c. 1.3-1.5 x sepals, ovoid, with valves longitudinally vittate. Seeds orange-brown, 0.5-0.8 mm long, carinate; testa densely linear-foveolate. 2n = 24 (Borgmann, 1964, as H. macgregorii).
Alpine grassland, open scrub or rocky slopes, usually in wetter areas; mostly 2730-4300 m, but down to c. 1800 m in Milne Bay District.
New Guinea (Irian Jaya - Mts Carstenz and Wilhelmina - to eastern Papua - Mt Dayman).
H. saruwagedicum is a variable species in which the variation falls into four geographical but morphologically more or less intergrading races. Although it is not desirable to give formal names to these races, average members can be recognised by the following characters:
Variant 1 (Mt Wilhelm): Leaves large. Flowers large. Black glands usually on leaves and sepals, not on petals or anthers. Shoot apex outcurving.
Variant 2 (rest of Territory of New Guinea, west Papua): Leaves medium. Flowers large to medium. Black glands on anthers only or absent. Shoot apex erect. This variant is nearest morphologically and geographically to 3. H. macgregorii.
Variant 3 (Irian Jaya): Leaves small. Flowers small. Black glands on anthers and rarely leaves. Shoot apex erect. In Flora Malesiana (Robson, 1974), H. saruwagedicum was differentiated from H. macgregorii by its incurved (not flat) leaves with laminar glands mostly linear (not mostly interrupted to punctate). In addition, its ovary placentation is parietal (not axile); and it has black glands on at least some part of the plant, whereas these are absent from H. macgregorii An exception was found in one specimen from Irian Jaya (L. Habbema), which has the black glands of H. saruwagedicum but leaf characters otherwise similar to those of H. macgregorii from east Papua. It was given subspecific rank under the latter species, although geographically remote from it.
It now seems clear that the L. Habbema population is merely an extreme form of Variant 3, the other specimens of which show a trend towards it. H. macgregorii can therefore be regarded as constituting another morphological trend from H. saruwagedicum in which the black glands have disappeared and the leaves have become smaller, flatter and relatively broader, with the glandular pattern becoming more and more interrupted.