Aphelandra dolichantha Donn. Smith, Bot. Gaz. 27: 438. 1899. Type collected at Suerre, Llanuras de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, 300 meters altitude, Febru ary 1896, by John Donnell Smith, No. 6689. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1320095. The specific name is derived from two Greek words, doxos, long, and dros, flower.
Shrubs or suffrutescent herbs up to 1.2 meters high; stems glabrous, or pubescent toward tip, the hairs brownish, about 0.5 mm. long, retrorsely appressed; leaf blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic, up to 22 em. long and 12 cm. wide, acute or short-acuminate at apex (the tip itself blunt), narrowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, per- gamentaceous, lustrous, entire, the upper surface minutely alveolar, drying dark green, glabrous or bearing a few scattered appressed hairs less than 0.5 mm. long, the costa and lateral veins (usually to 8 to 14 pairs) plane or slightly elevated, less prominent than on the lower surface, this drying light green or olive, subglabrous to finely strigose, the hairs mostly less than 0.5 mm. long, evenly distributed or confined chiefly to costa and basal portions of the lateral veins, retrorsely ap- pressed; petioles up to 3 cm. long, the pubescence similar to that of the stem; spikes terminal, cylindric, solitary or occasionally in 3's, up to 12 cm. long and 1.5 cm. broad, the rachis angular, pilose or sub- glabrous, the hairs fine, up to 1.5 mm. long, upwardly appressed to spreading; bracts closely imbricate or spreading with age, ovate- lanceolate, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, 1 to 1.3 cm. wide, acuminate, green, multi- nerved (the meshes of the reticulations compressed), glabrous or more or less appressed-pilose, the margins subhyaline but not well defined, minutely ciliolate; bractlets linear-subulate, 10 mm. long, 1 mm. wide at base, carinate, striate-nerved, sparingly pilose and minutely puberu- lous, the smaller hairs gland-tipped; calyx minute, the segments subulate to lance-subulate, 1.5 to 2 mm. long, less than 0.5 mm. wide at base, the pubescence similar to that of the bractlets; corolla white or pale cream, glandular-pubescent except the lobes, these glabrous, the tube slender, up to 6 cm. long but barely 2 mm. broad, the throat short and but slightly ampliate, about 4 mm, broad, the posterior lip oblong, 13 mm. long, 5 mm. wide, 2-lobed, the lobes about 3 mm. long and 2.5 mm. wide, rounded, the middle lobe of the lower lip oblong-elliptic, 18 to 20 mm. long, 6 to 7 mm. wide, the lateral lobes linear-oblong, 15 to 17 mm. long, 4 to 5 mm. wide, all rounded at apex; stamens included, the filaments about 6 mm. long, affixed at the base of the throat, the anthers 3 mm. long, apiculate, adhering by a lateral beard; disc cupu- liform; style included; capsules narrowly clavate, about 15 mm. long and 3 mm. broad, glabrous, minutely punctate; seed flattened, obliquely ovoid, 5.5 mm. long and 3.5 mm. broad, barely 1 mm. thick, smooth, brown.
A sciaphilous species blooming from October to May, Aphelandra dolichantha is readily distinguishable by its slender, white corolla and minute glandular calyces. Donnell Smith in his description of the type evidently mistook the bractlets for calyx lobes ("segmenta linearia 8-10 mm. longa") and failed to find the minute calyx alto- gether. The vernacular name in the Chocó is "Babosa" (Archer 2003).
In Colombia this plant is usually found between altitudes of 50 and 825 meters. Its range extends northward from Colombia into Guatemala.
CHоcó: La Concepción, 15 km, east of Quibdó, Archer 2003 (US).
EL VALLE: Córdoba, Killip & Hernando García-Barriga 33444 (US). Along the Río Calima, near Córdoba, Killip 11788 (US). Río Digua Valley, between La Elsa and Río Blanco, Killip 34738 (US).