Justicia spicigera Schlecht. Linnaea 7: 395. 1832. Type locality: Jalapa, México. Collected by G. Schiede in 1829.

Jacobinia spicigera L. H. Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. 1715. 1915. Based on Justicia spicigera Schlecht.

Shrub up to 2 meters high; stems subquadrangular, bifariously pubescent (the hairs curved) or glabrate; leaf blades lance-oblong to ovate, up to 17 cm. long and 7 cm. wide, acute to acuminate (the tip itself blunt), narrowed or rounded at the base and decurrent on the petiole, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous, the hairs curved, up to 0.5 mm. long; petioles up to 2 cm, long, glabrous or the channels hirtel- lous; flowers secund on the branches of axillary or terminal cymose panicles usually up to 7 cm. long, the branches of the inflorescence glabrous or bifariously hirtellous, the peduncles usually up to 2 cm. long; bracts and bractlets triangular, about 1.5 mm. long, acute; calyx segments lanceolate, up to 3 mm. long, acute, glabrous; corollas glabrous, red or orange, 3 to 4.5 cm. long, the tube 2 mm. broad at base, slightly narrowed above base, thence gradually enlarged to 5 mm. at mouth, the lips about 1.5 mm. long, the upper lip narrowly ovate, erect, acute, the lower lip erect or somewhat spreading, 3- lobed, the lobes 2 to 3 mm. long, rounded; stamens barely reaching the tip of the upper lip of the corolla, the lobes slightly superposed, nearly parallel, about 2 mm. long; mature capsules not seen. 

The Lehmann notes relating to the cited specimens are as follows: "Up to 2 m. high, soft-wooded shrub with squarrose irregular rami- fication. Leaves yellow-green. Flowers scarlet. Grows in dense, luxuriant forests around Dabeiba, western slopes of the West Andes of Antioquia, 300-500 m."

The species is common in México and Central America and has been found in Trinidad, where it is probably only in cultivation. ANTIOQUIA: Dabeiba, Lehmann 4740 (K).