Herbs; stems subquadrangular, glabrous or sparingly and minutely hirtellous, the hairs up to 0.2 mm. long, mostly ascending, the cys- toliths subpunctiform; leaf blades oblanceolate, up to 18.5 cm. long and 5.5 cm. wide slightly above middle, short-acuminate (the tip itself blunt), gradually narrowed to a crisped recurved apparently subpanduriform base, thin, entire or undulate, glabrous except the costa and veins (8 to 10 pairs), these minutely hirtellous with ascend ing hairs up to 0.16 mm. long, the costa, lateral veins and the coarsely reticulated veinlets prominent on the lower surface, obscure on the upper, the cystoliths scattered and inconspicuous; flowers usually several to numerous, forming dense fascicles up to 1 cm. broad and 0.5 cm. long at the nodes of the slender, lax, simple, forked or 3-parted racemes, the peduncles up to 10 cm. long, glabrous or sparingly hirtel- lous, bearing a pair of lance-ovate, acuminate, subsessile leaves up to
15 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, the lowermost internode of the raceme up to 7 cm. long, the others successively shorter, the rachis rather densely puberulous, the hairs upwardly curved, up to 0.3 mm. long; pedicels slender, up to 1.5 mm. long, puberulous; bracts subtending the flowers triangular, 1.5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide, glabrous or sparingly puberulous; bractlets similar but smaller; calyx segments 2 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, gradually narrowed to a slender acute tip, minutely hirtellous, the acute hairs up to 0.1 mm. long, ascending, these intermixed with a few shorter gland-tipped hairs; corolla 6 mm. long, puberulous toward tip, the tube 0.5 mm. broad, the mouth 1 mm. broad, the lobes ovate, 1.5 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, rounded at tip; stamens included; ovary minutely hirtellous; capsules not seen.
Type in the Kew Herbarium, collected in the "Province of Buena- ventura," Department of El Valle, Colombia, 1,600 meters altitude, July 1853, by J. Triana (No. 101-1). Isotype: Col.
The corollas of the type material were probably immature and thus smaller than fully developed ones. The color of the flower was not apparent in the dried material. The specific epithet is from the Greek, small, and flower.