Shrubs or small trees up to 3 meters high; stems erect or ascending, the tips quadrangular, densely strigose, the hairs whitish, straight, about 0.25 mm. long, the older portions of the stems terete, glabrous, gray, the lenticels minute, orbicular, corky; leaf blades oblong-elliptic to lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 8 to 13 cm. long, 2 to 4 cm. wide, acute to acuminate, the tip blunt and often curved, gradually narrowed at base, subcoriaceous, entire or shallowly crenate, the upper surface green, nitid, glabrous or sparingly and minutely strigose, the hairs barely 0.5 mm. long, the costa and lateral veins flat or slightly raised, the lower surface drying light olive green, minutely and rather spar- ingly strigose, the costa and veins more conspicuous than above; peti- oles up to 2 cm. long, strigose; flowers borne in terminal, solitary (occa- sionally 3), subsessile spikes up to 5 cm. long and 15 mm. broad, the rachis white-cottony; bracts closely imbricate, rhombic-ovate, up to 9 mm. long and 6 mm. wide at 2.5 mm. above base, acute to obtuse, white- cottony-pubescent at base, otherwise glabrous or sparingly pubescent, ciliate, the costa rather prominent, the 4 or 5 pairs of lateral nerves parallel and becoming obscure beyond middle of bract; ocelli 1 to 3, elliptic, about 0.5 mm. long, brown, nitid, varnished; bractlets obliquely lanceolate, subfalcate, 8 mm. long, carinate, 1 to 1.5 mm. wide, the keel densely white-pubescent, the margins glabrous, subhyaline, deli- cately striate-nerved; calyx 7 mm. long, the posterior segment 3.5 mm. wide, the anterior pair 3 mm. wide, the lateral pair 2.5 mm. wide, all oblong-ovate, finely pubescent or glabrate, striate-nerved, acute, ciliate toward tip; corolla 6 to 7 cm. long, red, minutely papillose, the tube about 4 mm. broad at base, contracted to 3 mm. at tip of ovary, thence gradually enlarged to a cylindric subventricose throat 7 or 8 mm. broad, the upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, 15 mm, long and 8 mm. wide, bilobed at apex, the lobes triangular-ovate, 7 mm. long, 4 mm. wide at base, acuminate, the tips outwardly curved, the middle lobe of the lower lip elliptic, spreading, 9.5 mm, wide, narrowed at base, sub- cucullate and apiculate at tip, the lateral lobes about 5 mm. long, the posterior edge adnate to lower part of upper lip, the free portions triangular-ovate, 1.5 mm. long, slightly over 1 mm. wide, obtuse; stamens exserted about 4 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, the anthers 7 mm. long, 1.5 mm, wide, apiculate at each end, dorsally tomentose; ovary glabrous; mature capsules not seen.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 703913, collected in forest ravine above Las Nubes, at Alto de Cielo, Department of Mag- dalena, Colombia, about "5,000 ft. altitude," December 18, 1898, by H. H. Smith (No. 1414). Isotypes (GH, Mo, Ph, NY, S).
MAGDALENA: San Lorenzo mountains, vicinity of Santa Marta, Viereck s. n. (US). Above Minca, Las Cumbres, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 2,000 meters altitude, Hawkes 587 (US).
NORTE DE SANTANDER: Ocaña, Schlim 537 (K); Kalbreyer 611 (K).  The rather small subglabrous leaf blades, short, relatively broad silky spikes and broad, finely pubescent calyx segments are characters by which one can recognize Aphelandra mildbraediana when com- pared with A. pulcherrima or its segregates. The species is named in honor of Johannes Mildbraed, a specialist in the family Acanthaceae.
Schultze No. 695, collected on wooded mountain slope at Casa Blanca, Colombia, 1,200 meters altitude, July 25, 1926, seems to be this species; a photograph of the Berlin specimen is in the U. S.  National Herbarium (Field Mus. photograph No. 8716). Schultze describes the plant from which he collected the specimen as a rare shrub 3 meters high producing gorgeous scarlet red flowers.