Shrubs up to 1.5 meters high; stems subquadrangular, up to 5 mm. in diameter, densely hirsute, the hairs coarse, spreading, up to 0.65 mm. long, the lower portions of the stems glabrate; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 25.5 cm. long and 9 cm. wide, acute to subacuminate (the tip itself subobtuse), narrowed at base, rather firm, entire, the upper surface glabrous, the lower surface hirtellous, the hairs confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins, curved, ascending, about 0.2 mm. long, the venation rather prominent, more so beneath than above, the cystoliths minute and inconspicuous, blackish; petioles up to 13 mm. long, hirsute; spikes solitary or in pairs, axillary, subsessile, up to 6 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, more or less curved, the flowers secund, numerous, crowded, the rachis slender, hirtellous, the peduncle short; bracts spathulate, 4.25 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide

near tip, obtuse or rounded, narrowed and slender toward base, rather sparingly hirtellous and ciliolate; bractlets similar but narrower (0.75 mm. wide); calyx 4 mm. long, glabrous, the segments lance- subulate, about 0.25 mm. wide at base; flowers white (lilac and red- brown, Klug 1813), 8 mm. long, glabrous, 1.5 mm. broad at base, 2.5 mm. broad at mouth, the lips subequal, 2.5 mm. long, the upper lip ovate, erect, 2 mm, wide near base, obtusish and emarginate at tip, the lower lip more or less spreading, 3-lobed, the lobes ovate, 1.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, rounded; stamens slightly exserted beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, the anther lobes slightly superposed, 0.75 mm. long, 0.25 mm. broad, glabrous, the lower cell calcarate, the fila- ments flat and subhyaline; stigma slightly exceeding the upper lip of the corolla; capsules (Klug 1813) clavate, sparingly hirtellous, 8 mm. long, 3.5 mm. broad, 1.5 mm. thick, the stipitate solid basal portion 1.25 mm. broad; retinacula 1.5 mm. long, nearly straight, the margins and tip thin; seeds suborbicular, flat, black, smooth.

Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1798533, collected in damp forests along the Río Putumayo at Puerto Porvenir, Comisaría of Putumayo, Colombia, 230 to 250 meters altitude, November 22, 1940, by J. Cuatrecasas (No. 10757).

The following specimens also may be of this species: Klug's No. 1813, collected in the forests of Umbria, Comisaría of Putumayo, 325 meters altitude, October or November 1930, and Richard Evans Schultes' No. 3538, collected along the Río San Miguel, in the vicinity of Conejo, Putumayo, 300 meters altitude, April 2-5, 1942.

Klug's specimen differs from the type in its lilac and red-brown (not white) flowers and in the slightly wider and more slenderly stipitate bracts. It does not seem expedient, however, to assign specific or varietal rank to this plant until further material can be examined.

Schultes' specimen was taken from a large herb and was called in the Kofán vernacular, "chu-ru-ko-pu."

The specific epithet is from the Greek toyevs, meaning peculiar of its kind, in allusion to the peculiar curved secund spikes.