Herb or low shrub; leaf blades oblong-lanceolate, up to 30 cm. long and 6 cm. wide, rather slenderly and somewhat abruptly acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, submembranaceous, entire or undulate, glabrous or the lower surface sparingly puberulous; spike terminal, subsessile, solitary (1), up to 26 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. broad, the rachis angled, finely puberulous, the hairs spreading; bracts ascending or nearly erect, rather closely imbricate, oblong-elliptic, 2.5 cm. long, 8 mm. wide at middle, acute, narrowed at base, puberulous, ciliate, the marginal hairs about 0.25 mm. long, the nerves rather prominent, the veinlets coarsely reticulate; bractlets subulate, 5 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide near base, slenderly acuminate, striate, puberulous; calyx 1 cm. long, the segments lanceo- late, slenderly acuminate, subchartaceous, striate, puberulous, the posterior segment 2.5 mm. wide near base, the anterior segments 2 mm. wide and the lateral segments 1.5 mm. wide near the base; corolla not seen; capsules cylindrically clavate, about 1.5 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, 2 mm. thick, obtuse and apiculate at tip, minutely puberulous; retin- acula erect, nearly straight, about 3 mm. long, 0.75 mm. broad at base, the tip bluntly cucullate; seeds brown, flat, suborbicular, 2.5 mm. in diameter, glabrous. Type in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew collected in the Province of Chocó, Nóvita, Colombia, 170 meters altitude, March, 1853, by J. Triana. An isotype, badly fragmented, is in the Herbario Nacional Colombiano. The lack of corollas on the material examined might possibly be due to cleistogamy. The type material is in rather poor condition and consists only of detached leaves and spikes. Nevertheless, the species seems clearly distinct. The specific epithet is from the Greek , meaning very remarkable. A lighter area bordering the costa of the leaf blades, which is notice- able in the dried material, may indicate that, typical of a number of species of Aphelandra of the Lagochilium type, the leaf blades of the live plants were variegated, possibly purple with light greenish or whitish areas following costa and veins.