Branching shrubs up to 3 meters high; stems subquadrangular, puberulous or the lower portions glabrate, the hairs up to 0.48 mm. long, curved, mostly subappressed, a few ascending; leaf blades ovate or oblong-ovate, up to 25 cm. long and 10 cm. wide, short-acuminate (the tip itself obtuse), narrowed at base and briefly decurrent on the petiole, moderately firm, entire or undulate, the upper surface spar- ingly puberulous, the lower surface moderately puberulous but more densely so than the upper, the hairs up to 0.32 mm. long, curved and ascending, the cystoliths obscure, the venation moderately prominent (the lateral veins 8 to 10 pairs); petioles up to 6 cm. long, puberulous; flowers borne in axillary spikes, these usually 2 to 5 cm, long and 2 to 2.5 cm. broad, sometimes subcapitate, the peduncles erect or as- cending, up to 10 cm. long, puberulous; rachis puberulous, the lower- most internode 4 mm. long, the others successively shorter toward tip; bracts suborbicular, up to 13 mm. long and 7 mm. wide, broadly obtuse or rounded at the apex and minutely apiculate, unguiculate at base, the narrowed portion 4 to 6 mm. long and 1 to 2.5 mm. wide, the entire blade puberulous, the costa and lateral veins evident but not prominent; bractlets elliptic, up to 1 cm. long and 4 to 4.5 mm. wide, broadly obtuse and minutely apiculate at apex, unguiculate at base, the entire bractlet puberulous, both bracts and bractlets often bearing glandular marginal hairs up to 0.16 mm. long, these intermixed with the shorter eglandular ones; calyx 4.5 mm. long, deeply segmented, Ehe segments 5, lanceolate, 4 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, acute, hirtellous and ciliolate toward tip, the hairs ascending or subappressed, curved, up to 0.13 mm. long; corolla 18 mm. long, white, marked with purple ines, puberulous, the hairs straight or curved, up to 0.2 mm. long, the Corolla tube about 1 cm. long, 4 mm. broad at base, 10 mm. broad t mouth, the upper lip erect, ovate, 8 mm. long, about 12 mm. wide, ucullate, enclosing the stamens, the lower lip about 13 mm. long and - cm. wide at base of the 3 lobes, these ovate, 8 mm. long and 6 mm. vide, rounded, the margins of both lips crinkled at tip; stamens 18 mm. ong, glabrous or sparingly scurfy toward base; anthers 3.5 mm. long and 2 mm. broad, slightly superposed, the lower lobe terminating in a short tail about 0.1 mm. long; capsules clavate, glabrous, 2 cm. long, 6 mm. broad, 3 mm. thick, the broad seed-containing portion obscurely and irregularly furrowed, the solid stipe 15 mm. long and 4 mm. broad; retinacula 4.5 mm. long, nearly straight, rounded at tip; seeds not seen, but, as indicated by the retinacula, 2 in number (one pair abortive).  Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1708866, collected near stream in forest, vicinity of Manaure, Department of Magdalena, 700 meters altitude, April 13, 1944, by Oscar Haught (No. 4072).
Paratypes are Haught's No. 3999 (US), collected near Barrancas, 170 meters altitude, February 16, 1944, and his No. 3816 (US), collected in the forest 12 km. north of Codazzi, both localities in the Department of Magdalena, and Schlim's No. 887 (K), collected in forest at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, at Riohacha, Department of Magdalena.
Haught tells us in his label notes that this species is strictly a forest plant and is probably poisonous. It dries with a peach-kernel odor and is not eaten by stock. The flowers are early deciduous, opening in the early morning and falling by noon.
The spathulate bracts remind one of J. carthaginensis, but that species does not have long-pedunculate inflorescences, and its bracts are relatively narrower and the leaf blades smaller. The specific epithet is from the Greek papuakaons, meaning poisonous.