Hypericum papuanum (Nomenclature)
Shrub or shrublet 0.1-1.3(-2) m tall, densely or more usually sparsely branched and spreading, with branches ascending, lax, creeping and rooting at the base. Stems 2-4-lined when young, eventually terete, eglandular. Leaves sessile or subsessile; lamina 6- 25(-40) x 3- 1 7 mm, narrowly to broadly ovate or ovate-triangular to elliptic or suborbicular, concolorous, not glaucous, plane, spreading or subimbricate-ascending; apex subacute (or rarely acute) to rounded, base rounded to cordate; venation: 4-5(6) pairs of main lateral veins, curved-parallel or divergent, much branched to form lax tertiary reticulation; laminar glands pale, linear towards base and distally striiform to punctiform or wholly striiform to punctiform; inframarginal glands dense, pale and/or black. Inflorescence 1-flowered, without or with flowering branches in uppermost axils, or regularly dichasial or mixed dichasial/pseudo-dichotomous; pedicels 4-20 mm in fruit. Flowers 18-26 mm in diam., stellate; buds ovoid to ellipsoid, subacute. Sepals 3-7(-8) x l-2.5(-3.5) mm, imbricate, subequal to unequal, ovate to lanceolate or narrowly oblong or sometimes broadly ovate and foliaceous, acute to rounded, entire; veins 7-9, forking and distally branching; laminar glands pale, linear; inframarginal glands black or absent. Petals bright yellow, not tinged red, 9-15 x 4-9 mm, 2-3 x sepals, narrowly obovate- elliptic, rounded, apiculus short or obsolete; laminar glands pale, wholly linear or distally striiform; marginal glands absent or few to numerous, black, often only in apiculus, not or scarcely prominent. Stamens not obviously fascicled, (15-)25-40(-50), longest 6-9 mm, c. 0.75 x petals; anther gland amber or occasionally black. Ovary (2-)2.5-3(-4) x 1.5-1.8 mm, narrowly or rarely broadly ovoid, acute; styles 3(4-6), 2-3(-4) mm long, 0.75-1 x ovary, divergent; stigmas narrowly to broadly capitate; placentae 3(4-6), parietal. Capsule (5-)7-9(-10) x 3-4.5 mm, 1.3 x sepals, narrowly or rarely broadly ovoid to ellipsoid, with valves longitudinally vittate. Seeds yellow-brown to dark brown, 0.1-0.9 mm long, scarcely carinate; testa densely linear-foveolate to linear-scalariform.
Wet or more rarely dry alpine grassland and bogs, screes, abandoned cultivation; (1200-)1600-3800 m.
New Guinea (Irian Jaya (Mt Carstensz, Mt Hellwig, etc.) to Terr. New Guinea (Madang District) and Papua (Milne Bay District)).
H. papuanum is a very variable species in which the extreme forms, although quite distinct in appearance, are linked by intermediates with varying combinations of characters, so that the morphological trends are not co-ordinated. These trends are:
(1) Leaves narrowly ovate and crowded, with laminar glands mostly linear (in E., W. and S. Highlands mainly) to broadly ovate or suborbicular, not crowded, with laminar glands all punctiform (constant in Irian Jaya and east Papua - Northern and Milne Bay Districts).
(2) Leaves, sepals, petals and anthers without black glands (mainly eastern) to with black glands, forming a continuous inframarginal row in the leaves (constant in Irian Jaya) and sepals and a continuous marginal row in the petals (rare).
(3) Inflorescence 1 -flowered (mainly eastern) to regularly dichasial (mainly western).
(4) Styles and placentae 3, with ovary and capsule narrowly ovoid (mainly eastern) to styles and placentae 4-5 with ovary and capsule broadly ovoid (mainly western). The occurrence of 6 styles and 5 placentae reported by A.C. Smith (1941) was not confirmed on examination of an isotype of H. habbemense. If correctly observed, this character combination was no doubt teratological in origin.
(5) Habit dense with ascending branches (widespread) to lax with spreading branches (Madang and Morobe Districts).