Suffrutescent plants; stems subterete, glabrous or sparingly and antrorsely strigose near the nodes, the hairs straight, up to 0.32 mm. long; leaf blades oblong-ovate, up to 10 cm. long and 4.5 cm. wide, short-acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base and briefly decurrent on the petiole, moderately firm, entire, undulate, glabrous or sparingly hirsute except the costa and lateral veins, these strigose, the hairs up to 0.32 mm. long, straight or nearly so, the cystoliths obscure; petioles rather slender, up to 1 cm. long, glabrous or the channel hirtellous; spikes axillary, lax, nearly straight, rigid, ascend- ing, up to 10 cm. long and 6 mm. broad, the peduncles up to 4 cm. long and 1.75 mm. thick, subterete, glabrous or sparingly strigose, the lowermost internodes of the spikes up to 2 cm. long, the others successively shorter, somewhat flattened near the nodes, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, the hairs ascending to subappressed, up to 0.2 mm. long, the flowers in pairs; bracts lanceolate, 6 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide near the middle, slenderly acuminate, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous and ciliolate, the hairs about 0.08 mm. long; bractlets lanceolate, 4.5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide, acuminate, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous and ciliolate; calyx 5.5 mm. long, the segments 5, these lanceolate, 5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide near base, gradually narrowed to a slender tip, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous and cilio- late, the costa and a pair of lateral nerves evident when viewed against a strong light; corolla about 3 cm. long, minutely hirtellous with rigid narrowly triangular spreading hairs, the tube narrow, 1.5 mm. broad at base, gradually enlarged to 5 mm. at mouth, the lips subequal, about 16 mm. long, the upper lip oblong-ovate, 5 mm. wide at base, gradually narrowed to an emarginate rounded tip 1 mm. wide, the lower lip more or less spreading, cuncate, about 4 mm. wide at the base of the 3 lobes, these oblong, 7 mm. wide near the middle, the tip obtuse; stamens exserted 13 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla and not quite reaching the tip of the upper lip and partly enfolded by it, the filaments glabrous except near base, there bearing a band of retrorse hairs about 0.13 mm. long, the anthers glabrous, their cells superposed, attached nearly vertically to the connective, each about 3.5 mm. long and 1 mm. thick, the lower cell obscurely caudate; style reaching the tip of the upper corolla lip, glabrous, the stigma rounded, minute and bilobate; capsule clavate, about 17 mm. long, 6 mm. broad and 3 mm. thick, glabrous; retinacula oblong, curved, 1 mm. long, rounded and flattened at tip; seed (immature) papillose.
Type in the Kew Herbarium, collected in the "Province de Pro- payan," Department of Cauca, Colombia, 1,300 meters altitude, July 1853, by J. Triana (No. 4084-1). Isotypes: Col, NY.
There is a photograph apparently of the same Triana collection in the Berlin Herbarium (Field Mus. No. 8912) that bears an unpublished name of Lindau's.
The color of the corolla is not apparent in the dried material but is probably red.