Hypericum harlingii (Nomenclature)
Shrub 0.5 m tall, erect, branches strict, pseudo-dichotomous and lateral. Stems orange-brown, 4-lined and ancipitous when young, eventually terete, cortex exfoliating in strips; internodes 2-3 mm long. Leaves petiolate with petiole 1 mm long; lamina 4-6 x 2-3 mm, elliptic, margins incurved, not cucullate or carinate, dull green above, sublucent beneath, not glaucous, chartaceous; apex acuminate, base cuneate- angustate, not sheathing, united to form very narrow interfoliar ridge; basal vein 1, impressed beneath, with 2-3 pairs of obscure ascending laterals loosely reticulating; laminar glands dense, visible on both sides, not impressed. Inflorescence 1 -flowered, terminal, repeatedly branching pseudo-dichotomously; pedicel 4 mm long; upper leaves foliose. Flowers 12-15 mm in diam., stellate. Sepals 4-5 x 1.2-1.5 mm, linear-elliptic, acute to subacuminate; veins 3, branching distally, becoming prominent. Petals bright ? yellow, 6-7 x 3 mm, c. 1.5 x sepals, narrowly oblong-oblanceolate; apiculus acute; glands linear, distally striiform. Stamens 35-40, longest 4-4.5 mm long, c. 0.65 x petals. Ovary 2-2.5 x 1.5 mm, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid; styles 3, 3 mm long, 1.3-1.5 x ovary, divergent-incurving; stigmas narrow. Capsule (old) c. 5 x 3 mm, ovoid. Seedsc. 1.5 mm long, ecarinate; testa finely scalariform-reticulate.
In montane forest; 3000-3200 m.
Ecuador (Loja).
Although H. harlingii is known from only two collections, it is quite distinct. Its nearest relative appears to be 70. H. ruscoides, from which it differs by the smaller, dull green, incurved leaves and the smaller flowers with narrower, 3-veined sepals and slender styles with narrow stigma. The most closely related form of H. ruscoides is not the nearest geographically (central Ecuador) but that in southern Colombia.