Herbs up to 1.5 meters high; stems subquadrangular, glabrous or rather sparingly yellowish-strigillose, the hairs up to 0.16 mm. long; leaf blades oblong-ovate or broadly oblong-lanceolate, up to 18 cm. long and 7 cm. wide, short and rather slenderly acuminate, often more or less curved (the tip itself blunt), cuneate at base, moderately thin, entire or lightly undulate, minutely pilosulous above on the surfaces, pilosulous beneath on the veins and veinlets, the costa and lateral veins (10 or 12 pairs) moderately prominent beneath, the veinlets coarsely reticulate, obscure; petioles up to 5 cm. long and 2 mm. thick, glabrous or bearing a few minute hairs; panicles ovoid, terminal, usually up to 20 cm. long and 10 cm. broad, more or less diffuse to rather dense, especially at and near the tip, the branches forked with a flower in the fork, the lowermost branches of the panicle subtended by foliage leaves, the upper with cordate, acuminate, sub- sessile bracts up to 3 cm. long, the uppermost and flowers subtended by lanceolate acuminate bracts up to 6 mm. long and 1.25 mm. wide near base, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous, the rachis and rachilla more or less hirtellous, the hairs recurved, up to 0.25 mm. long, the pedicels up to 8 mm, long and 0.38 mm. thick, moderately to rather densely hirtellous with recurved hairs up to 0.3 mm. long; calyx segments linear, up to 12 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide near base, acuminate (the tip more or less recurved), glabrous or bearing a few minute hairs on margins and near the tip; corolla scarlet, up to 24 mm. long, glabrous, the upper lip about 1 cm. long and 2 mm. wide, the tip obtuse, recurved or coiled, the lower lip ovate, spreading, 1 cm. long and about 8 mm. wide, 3-lobed at tip, the lobes 1 mm. long, the middle one 2 mm. wide, the lateral ones 1.5 mm. wide, all rounded; stamens exserted about 1 cm. beyond the mouth of the corolla, glabrous, the anthers linear, about 6 mm. long and 0.75 mm. broad, rounded at both ends; pistils slightly exceeding the stamens, glabrous, the stigma minute; capsules clavate, 12 mm. long, 5 mm. broad, 2.5 mm. thick, glabrous; retinacula 2.5 mm. long, narrowed to the truncate fimbriate tip; seed suborbicular, oblique at base, about 2.5 mm. in diameter, brownish, muricate at least near the margins.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 2059078, collected in a clearing in temperate forests 3 km. southwest of Charquita and 25 km. west-southwest of Bogotá, Department of Cundinamarca, Co- lombia, 2,800 meters altitude, April 13, 1944, by Martin L. Grant (No. 9011).
Also of this species are Cuatrecasas' No. 209 (US), collected in a dense forest of La Hondonada, Salto de Tequendama, 2,250 to 2,300 meters altitude, October 2, 1938, and Pennell's No. 2667 (GH, NY), collected in a forest below El Peñon, southwest of Sibate, 2,600 to 2,800 meters altitude, October 29, 1917. Both collections are from the Department of Cundinamarca, Colombia.