Plants erect, up to 2.5 meters high, shrubby at base; stems quad- rangular, glabrous or sparingly puberulous; leaf blades ovate to oblong-elliptic or lanceolate, 6 to 24 cm. long, 3 to 9 cm. wide, acumi- nate, ending in a blunt tip, rounded or narrowed at base, decurrent on the petiole, undulate or shallowly crenate, glabrous or sparingly puberulous; petioles 2 to 6 cm. long, sparingly puberulous or glabrous; flowers few, borne on axillary peduncled cymes, the peduncles 4 to 18 cm. long, the branches of the cyme 1 to 8 cm. long, these and the peduncles glabrous or sparingly pilosulous, broadest at the nodes, often with a flower in the forks; bracts subtending the flowers lanceo- late, 2 to 7 mm. long and about 1 mm. wide, those subtending the branches of the inflorescence somewhat larger, all glabrous or spar- ingly puberulous; pedicels 1 to 4 mm. long; calyx about 1 cm. long,

narrowly campanulate, glabrous or bearing a few minute hairs, the segments linear to lanceolate, about 4 mm. long and 2 mm. wide at base, acute to obtusish at apex; corolla scarlet or crimson, 4 to 5 cm. long, sparingly puberulous, the tube salverform, about 8 mm. broad at mouth, the limb 2.5 to 3 cm. broad, the lobes oblong, about 12 mm. long, 5 to 6 mm. wide, rounded or emarginate; ovary glabrous; style up to 4.5 cm. long, pilosulous; capsules clavate, 14 mm. long, 4 mm. broad, pointed at tip, narrowed to a solid stipitate base 4 to 5 mm. long and 2 to 2.5 mm. broad, glabrous, 16-seeded; retinacula bidentate at apex; seeds reddish brown, lenticular, 3 mm, broad, appressed- puberulous when dry, mucilaginous-pubescent with spreading hairs when moistened.
Damp shady places, in woods or thickets, often along streams or in ravines. Panama, West Indias, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru.