Herbs; stems ascending, rooting at the base, sparingly branched, about 4 mm. in diameter, rather sparsely strigose, the hairs upwardly appressed, 0.75 mm. long; leaf blades oblong to oblanceolate, up to 25 cm. long and 4.5 cm. wide, rounded or abruptly narrowed into a short obtusish tip about 2 mm. long, gradually narrowed from slightly above the middle to base and decurrent on the petiole, thin, entire. the upper surface drying brownish, pilose, the hairs ascending, up to 1.25 mm, long, the lower surface drying greenish, strigose, the hairs appressed, about 0.5 mm. long, confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins, these more prominent beneath than above; petioles up to 3 cm. long, the pubescence that of the blade; spikes terminal and lateral, up to 5 cm. long and 1 cm. broad, the peduncle slender, 2 to 3 cm. long, rather densely strigose, the hairs yellowish, up to 1 mm. long, the pubescence of the rachis the same as that of the peduncle; bracts rhombic-ovate, 10.5 mm. long, 5 mm. wide, short-acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base, the outer surface densely pilose, the hairs 0.75 mm. long, subappressed, the margins just above the middle of the bract bearing 3 pairs of small, ascending teeth (0.5 mm. long), the inner surface glabrous, the five veins prominent but slender, parallel; bractlets lanceolate, carinate, substriate, 7.5 mm. wide at slightly below the middle, narrowly acute at tip, dorsally pilose, the hairs up to 1 mm. long, ascending, the marginal region thin, sub- hyaline, sparingly ciliate, the hairs minute, blunt; calyx segments lanceolate, the posterior segment 6.5 mm. long and 1.25 mm. wide near base, the anterior pair 6.25 mm. long and 1 mm. wide at base, the lateral pair 5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide, all striate-nerved, narrowed upwardly to a slender tip, the margins very sparingly ciliate, the hairs minute, papilliform; corolla about 12 mm. long, pale pink with yellow throat, minutely puberulous, the hairs gland-tipped, the tube 1.5 mm. broad from base to 4 mm. above base, thence enlarged to 3.25 mm. at throat, the lips equal, about 2 mm. long, the upper lip  about 4 mm. wide, bilobed at tip, the lobes about 1 mm. long, rounded, the three lobes of the lower lip about 3 mm. long, rounded and minutely crenate; stamens attached 4 mm. above the base of the corolla tube, 6 mm. long, the anthers 2 mm. long and slightly over 0.5 mm. wide, acute at base and sparingly bearded at tip, the filaments slender, glabrous; ovary pilose at tip, the hairs ascending; style 8 mm. long, slender, glabrous; capsule not seen.
Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected at side of brook in the high forest of El Umbo (130 miles north of Bogotá), Department of Boyacá, Colombia, about 1,000 meters altitude, March 17, 1933, by A. E. Lawrance (No. 680). Fragment of type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1934972.
Aphelandra adscendens should be easily recognized by its ascending habit, small size, and by the rather densely pilose inflorescence. It has a superficial resemblance to Lindau's Rhombochamys rosulata, but that has a very short scape, rosulate leaves, glandular bracts and larger flowers (the tube 12 mm. long instead of 6 mm., as in A. adscendens).