Hypericum olympicum Form minus (Nomenclature)
Stems decumbent (rarely suberect or prostrate), occasionally branched below inflorescence. Leaves 8–15 × 1.5–4(–6) mm, narrowly elliptic to linear (l : b = 3–6), acute to rounded, with few to numerous and subregular intramarginal black glands. Flowers 2.5–4 mm in diam. Petals golden or pale yellow.
Southern Bulgaria, Greece (southern mainland and South Aegean Islands).
Forma minus may well have been derived from f. olympicum more than once. The Bulgarian record, in particular, is suspicious in this regard, as are the ones from Ikaría. The population on this island is isolated from other areas of H. olympicum, which has not been recorded from the Kikhlades or from southeastern Turkey. It is morphologically distinct from the Peloponnisos plants in having laminar black glands on the sepals and was therefore included in H. polyphyllum subsp. subcordatum (i.e. 2. H. auriculatum) in the Flora of Turkey Supplement (Robson, 1988: 103). In all other characters, however, it is typical H. olympicum, and can be included in forma minus. It is thus most likely to be be derived from the Peloponnisos population.
The ‘type’ of Hypericum olympicum var. ß sensu Chaub. & Bory, Nouv. Fl. Pélopp. Cycl.: 53 (1838): Greece, Peloponnisos, several locations are mentioned (P). ‘Minor’, like ‘major’ (see under f. olympicum’), is part of the description, not an epithet; unlike var. minus Degen.
Degen attributed the epithet var. minus to Heldreich on the basis of a reference by Halácsy to a specimen from Euboea [Evvoia] so labelled, thus implying that the authorship could be cited as ‘Heldr. ex. Degen’. Halácsy himself and Hayek wrongly attribute var. minus to Chaubard & Bory, implying that var. minus is a combination that should be cited as ‘(Chaub. & Bory) Degen’ with a type from Peloponnisos. Haussknecht’s forma minus, however, is not based on either Chaubard & Bory or Degen.
Hypericum olympicum forma minus cv. Sulphureum N.Robson has appeared among previously uniform yellow-flowered plants in our garden, which suggests that it is the result of a single mutation.