Herbs; stems glabrous, subquadrangular; leaf blades oblanceolate, up to 21 cm. long and 5.8 cm. wide, short-acuminate (the tip itself 1 mm. wide and rounded), gradually narrowed from above middle to base, moderately firm, entire, both sides glabrous, the costa and veins (8 to 10 pairs) scarcely prominent, cystoliths obscure or lacking; petioles up to 15 mm. long and 1.5 mm. thick, glabrous; panicles terminal or subterminal, about 12 cm. long and 6 cm. broad, the inter- node between the 2 pairs of branches 3.5 cm. long, the peduncle 8 cm. long, 1.75 mm. thick, the flowers solitary and sessile in the axils of the bracts, the lower internodes of the flower-bearing branches 5 to 19 mm. long, the peduncles glabrous, the rachises sparingly and minutely pubescent, the hairs up to 0.06 mm. long, ascending; bracts oblanceolate, up to 14 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, narrowed from above the middle to a small obtuse tip, glabrous, the veins ob- scure; bractlets narrowly triangular, 2.5 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide at base, gradually narrowed to tip, ciliolate, the hairs 0.06 mm. long, the flat surfaces glabrous, the costa and a pair of nerves conspicuous. through transmitted light; calyx 5 mm. long, the segments lanceolate, 1.25 mm. wide near base, gradually narrowed to an acute tip, striate- nerved, minutely and sparingly hirtellous and ciliolate at tip, other- wise glabrous, conspicuously striate-nerved through transmitted light; corollas glabrous, up to 2 cm. long (from base of tube to tip of corolla lobes), the tube 11.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. broad at base, slightly en
larged over the ovary, narrowed to 0.75 mm. near tip, the mouth 2.5 mm. broad, the corolla lobes obovate, 7 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, obtuse at tip, delicately nerved; stamens included, 2 mm. long, the filaments slender, 0.5 mm. long; ovary glabrous; capsules not seen. Type in the Kew Herbarium, collected at San Pablo, Intendencia of Chocó, Colombia, 100 meters altitude, March 1853, by J. Triana. Isotype: Col.
On page 157 above, I referred this collection to Aphelandra botanodes, but it differs in the more open inflorescence and in the entire, more distant bracts. The specific epithet is from the Greek, meaning succulent.