An erect soft-wooded shrub; stems quadrangular toward tip, glabrous; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 40 cm. long and 13.5 cm. wide, short-acuminate (?), narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, submembranaceous, prominently and irregularly crenate ex- cept the narrowed basal portion, the upper surface drying olive-green, glabrous, the costa and lateral veins (16 to 18 pairs) slightly raised, scarcely conspicuous, the lower surface drying to grayish olive-green, densely and minutely white-punctate under lens, glabrous or the costa and lateral veins sparingly puberulous, the hairs appressed or spread- ing; spikes several, up to 16 cm. long and 2 cm. broad, the terminal ones subsessile, the lateral borne on peduncles up to 3.5 cm. long, these glabrous or sparingly and minutely strigose, the rachis glabrous; bracts coriaceous, scarlet (Haught) in live plants, drying to light brown proximally, shading to blackish brown toward tip, glabrous, ovate, 13 mm. long and 10 mm. wide, obtuse, the costa rather promi- nent, ending in a minute mucro, the flanking nerves fairly prominent except toward tip; ocelli replaced by elliptical, dull blackish brown faveolate areas up to 4 mm. long and 2 mm. wide; bractlets lanceolate, falcate, carinate, 10 mm. long, slightly over 3 mm. wide, acutish, the costa and keel densely hirsute, the hairs yellowish, ascending, about 0.5 mm. long, the marginal area glabrous, bordered by a narrow sub- hyaline edging, the tip more or less ciliate; calyx 16 to 17 mm. long, the posterior segment oblong, slightly over 7 mm. wide, the anterior segments narrowly oblong, 5 mm. wide, the lateral segments linear- oblong, 3 mm. wide, all minutely scurfy within, glabrous and striate- nerved without, ciliate, rounded and minutely mucronate at tip, in- durate at base; corollas rose, densely papillose, 7 cm. long from base to tip of upper lip, 10 mm. broad at base, narrowed to 4 mm. at 8 mm. above base, thence enlarged to a slightly curved subcylindric throat, 7 mm. broad at mouth, the upper lip erect, elliptic, about 23 mm. long and 9 mm. wide, bilobed at tip, the lobes triangular, 9 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, acute, the middle lobe of the lower lip spreading, narrowly elliptic, 3 cm. long, 9 mm. wide, the submucronate tip slightly recurved, the lateral lobes about 1 cm. long, partly adnate to the lower part of the upper lip, their free portions 2 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide, rounded; stamens exserted about 1 cm. beyond mouth of the corolla tube, the anthers 1 cm. long, 1.5 mm. broad, acute at base, blunt at tip; capsules not seen. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1662465, collected at Camp Zarzal, in the vicinity of Barranca Bermeja, in the Magdalena Valley, between the Sogamoso and Colorado rivers, Department of Santander, Colombia, 100 to 500 meters altitude, December 15, 1934, by Oscar Haught (No. 1464). Idrobo and Schultes' No. 885, collected at Guapayita, Cordillera La Macarena, Meta, 500 to 600 meters altitude, December 20-28, 1950, is also of this species. Aphelandra crenata is related to A. hartwegiana, differing in its rose-colored corolla, densely hirsute keel of the bractlets, and its rounded calyx segments. The specific name crenata alludes to the strongly crenate margins of the leaf blades.