Suffrutescent; stems up to 1.3 meters high, subterete, glabrous or very sparingly hirtellous or moderately hirtellous at the nodes, spar- ingly branched; leaf blades narrowly oblong-elliptic, up to 12 cm. long and 3 cm. wide, acuminate (the tip slender, often curved, its apex blunt), narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, submembranaceous, entire or undulate, both surfaces glabrous or nearly so except the costa and lateral veins (9 or 10 pairs), these rather obscure, the costa of both surfaces hirtellous, the hairs about 0.25 mm. long, subappressed, the lateral veins beneath puberulous or sparingly hirtellous; petioles up to 2.5 cm. long, slender, more or less hirtellous; spikes several, terminal, subsessile, crowded, forming a headlike cluster up to 8 cm. long and 5 cm. broad, these subtended by a pair of leaflike bracts about 7 cm. long and 8 mm. wide, the rachis angled, finely puberulous, the hairs spreading; bracts ascending, closely im- bricate, oblong-lanceolate, 30 mm. long, 8 mm. wide slightly below middle, acute, narrowed toward base, submembranaceous, puberulous, ciliate, the marginal hairs up to 0.75 mm. long, ascending to spreading, the costa and lateral nerves barely prominent; bractlets narrowly lanceolate, 11 mm. long, 1 mm. wide at base, slenderly acumi- nate, carinate, striate-nerved, sparingly puberulous toward tip; calyx segments subequal, subcoriaceous, striate-nerved, sparingly puberu- lous toward tip, the posterior segment lanceolate, rather abruptly acuminate, sparingly ciliolate at tip, a few of the hairs sometimes glandular, the anterior and lateral segments narrowly lanceolate, slenderly acuminate, sparingly ciliolate, the anterior ones 1.5 mm. wide near base, the lateral ones 1 mm. wide; corollas dark scarlet, up to 6 cm. long, rather densely pubescent, the hairs white, more or less curved, about 0.25 mm. long, the tube 2 mm. broad at base, 5 mm. broad at mouth, the upper lip erect, oblong-ovate, 2 cm. long, 9 mm, wide near base, acute, the lower lip 3-parted to base, spreading or reflexed, sub- equal, oblanceolate, about 18 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, subobtuse, ob- scurely veiny; stamens exserted about 15 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, the filaments slender, glabrous, the anthers linear, straight or slightly curved, about 5 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, acute at base, subobtuse and hairy at tip, the style sparingly and more or less re- trorsely hirtellous; ovary pilose at tip; capsules not seen.
Type in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, col- lected in dense bushwood formations on the Altos de Mismis above Supía, Department of Cauca, Colombia, 1,700 to 2,000 meters altitude, July 1891, by F. C. Lehmann (No. 7440).
A specimen of Lehmann's No. 7440 in the Berlin Herbarium bears in Lindau's handwriting his determination Aphelandra colombiensis n. sp. A photograph (No. 8662) of this specimen is in the U. S. Na- tional Herbarium.