Hypericum oaxacanum subsp. veracrucense (Nomenclature)
Suffrutex or wiry perennial herb, 0.3–1 m tall, erect, often branched above. Stems 2–4-lined above, shallowly 2-lined to terete below. Leaf lamina 10–50 × 6–25 mm, broadly ovate or broadly elliptic to elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate; laminar glands sometimes partly (very rarely wholly) black. Inflorescence from 1–4 nodes, flowering branches from up to 4 nodes below; bracts foliose. Flowers up to 30 mm in diam., sometimes red-tinged in bud. Sepals entire or with slightly prominent glands; veins 5–7; laminar glands very rarely black. Petals with laminar glands very rarely black; marginal glands apically dense. Capsule 7–9 mm long.
1500–2800 m.
Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas), Guatemala (Huehuetenango, El Quiché, Baja Verapaz).
The most primitive form of subsp. veracrucense, which occurs in Veracruz in the Perote-Orizaba region, is similar to the eastern U.S. 1. H. graveolens in its broad leaves with densely reticulate venation and small pale laminar glands, the narrow acute entire sepals without black glands, the petals without black glands, and the long styles. It differs in being more woody and in having stems that are eglandular, red and soon terete and leaves that are thicker and more discolorous. Specimens from towards the southern end of its range (in Chiapas and Guatemala) tend to have elliptic to oblanceolate leaves approaching those of 3. H. collinum, but the long styles and acute sepals distinguish it (and subsp. oaxacanum) from that species.
In one Chiapas specimen (Breedlove 10171, from Mun. Rayón, 14.4 km N. of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán) the laminar glands of the leaves, sepals and petals are all black, whereas in all other specimens studied they are all pale or (in the leaves) partly black. This aberration seems likely to be due to a simple genetic modification and, if so, may well be present in other populations of this taxon.