Herbs about 40 cm. high; stems erect or ascending, hexagonal, finely and rather sparingly puberulous or glabrate, the angles rounded, the lower nodes somewhat swollen; leaf blades narrowly oblong- elliptic to lanceolate, 3 to 7 cm. long, 1 to 2.5 em. wide, acute to sub- acute at tip, narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, thin, entire or undulate, ciliolate, the upper surface glabrous, drying olive green, the lower surface drying to grayish green, glabrous or the costa sparingly puberulous, this and the lateral veins (4 or 5 pairs) prominent, more so beneath than above, the cystoliths of both surfaces slender, 0.25 mm. long, rather scattered; petioles slender, up to 2 cm. long, sparingly and minutely pubescent or glabrate; flowers borne in dense terminal and axillary thyrsi 1 to 3 cm. long and 1 to 1.5 cm. broad, these composed of verticillasters of 4 to 5 cymes each, the lowermost cymes of the thyrse short-peduncled, the others sessile or subsessile, the cymes usually several flowered, the rachis and peduncles more or less puberulous, the bracts subtending the cymules elliptic, 9 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, acute and cuspidate, thin, narrowed toward base, puberulous, the lower half whitish, the upper light green, ciliate, the marginal hairs up to 1 mm. long, the intermediate bracts lance- olate, 7 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, acuminate, subhyaline, greenish toward tip, more or less puberulous, the innermost bracts lance- subulate, 4.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, whitish, puberulous; calyx 3.5 mm. long, the segments narrowly lanceolate, 3 mm. long, 0.25 mm. wide, subhyaline; corolla (immature) 12 mm. long, red (?), finely pubescent, the hairs spreading, up to 0.25 mm. long, the lips oblong, 5 to 6 mm. long, the posterior lip 3 mm. wide, subobtuse at tip, the anterior lip 2.5 mm. wide, 3-lobed at tip, the lobes rounded, 0.25 mm. long, the middle one subcucullate; stamens reaching the tip of the upper lip, the filaments sparingly pilose, the hairs spreading, about 0.25 mm. long, the anthers cells attached one above the other, oval, each barely 2 mm. long; ovaries and capsules not seen.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1830673, collected at Restrepo, Intendencia of Meta, Colombia, January 1937, by H. García-Barriga (No. 5177). Isotype in the Herbario Nacional Colombiano. The specific epithet (xpós, whitish, and xλaués, military cloak) alludes to the characteristic whitish bracts, which give a whitish appearance to the entire inflorescence.