Suffrutescent plants; stems subquadrangular, upwardly strigose, the hairs brownish, straight or slightly curved, stiff, ascending to ap- pressed, up to 0.75 mm. long; leaf blades lanceolate, up to 14 cm. long and 4 cm. wide, gradually narrowed from below middle to tip (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base, rather firm, entire or undulate, the upper surface glabrous or sparingly strigose, the hairs stiff, ca. 0.75 mm. long, the cystoliths about 0.2 mm. long, often obscure, the lower surface sparingly strigose but the hairs much smaller, about 0.38 mm.  long, the costa and lateral veins (7 or 8 pairs) moderately prominent beneath, obscure above, the cystoliths of the lower surface obscure; petioles 0.5 to 1 cm. long, strigose like the stems; spikes terminal, up to 6 cm. long and 8 mm. broad, rather lax, the peduncle 8 mm. long, the lower internode of the spike 5 mm. long, the other internodes  successively shorter toward tip of spike, both peduncle and rachis hirsute and puberulous, the large hairs ascending, stiff, straight or slightly curved, up to 0.8 mm. long, the small ones spreading or re- trorsely recurved, up to 0.13 mm. long; bracts lanceolate, 3.25 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, acute, conduplicate, hirsute, the hairs mostly costal and marginal, up to 0.57 mm. long, stiff, nearly straight, ascending; bractlets lanceolate, 3.5 mm. long, acute, flat, glabrous except costa and margins, these bearing ascending slightly curved hairs up to 0.48 mm. long, the costa prominent; calyx 7 mm. long, deeply segmented, the segments 4, lanceolate, the anterior and posterior segments 0.75 mm. wide below middle, the lateral segments about 0.5 mm. wide, all narrowed to a slender tip, delicately 3-nerved, the outer surface hirtellous, the hairs up to 0.5 mm. long, ascending, the inner surface glabrous; corolla a clear bright purple, 2.8 cm. long, sparingly hirtel- lous, the hairs mostly spreading, straight, up to 0.28 mm. long, the tube narrowly campanulate, 1.5 mm. broad at base, narrowed at 2 mm. above base to 0.5 mm., thence enlarged to 6 mm. at mouth, the upper lip suberect, 1 cm. long, 8 mm. wide at base, narrowed to a rather slender acute slightly recurved tip, the lower lip more or less spreading, oblong, about 3 mm. wide, 3-lobed at tip, the lobes sub- orbicular, about 1.5 mm. in diameter, rounded or subtruncate; stamens exserted 7 mm. beyond mouth of the corolla tube, the fila- ments glabrous, the anther lobes slightly superposed, the upper lobe attached almost horizontally to the connective, bearing dorsally a row of stiff straight whitish hairs up to 0.11 mm. long, the lower lobe glabrous, vertically attached to the connective, the upper tip touching the upper lobe, the lower tip apiculate, the apiculus whitish, blunt, about 0.38 mm. long; style slightly longer than the stamens, the stigma. 2-lobed, the lobes minute, rounded, one slightly longer than the other; ovary glabrous; capsules not seen.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 2025704, collected on the bank of a quebrada on the Renjifo Massive, Cordillera La Maca- rena (extreme northeast tip), Intendencia of Meta, Colombia, 1,300 to 1,900 meters altitude, January 6-20, 1951, by Jesús M. Idrobo and Richard Evans Schultes (No. 1079).
The corollas of Justicia charadrophila are strikingly similar to those of Justicia cystolithosa Leonard. In other respects however the two species are highly dissimilar. The leaves of J. cystolithosa are much larger (up to 22 cm. long and 7.5 cm. wide), glabrous, strongly veined, and bear numerous cystoliths, and the flowers are in largish panicles. The specific epithet is from the Greek, xapáôpa, ravine, and piλós, fond of, in allusion to its habitat.