Low suffrutescent shrub; stems terminally subquadrangular, strigose. Leaves oblong-elliptic, 28-36 cm long, 13-16 cm wide, apically short-acuminate, basally acute, glabrous to sparingly strigose above, strigose beneath, more densely strigose on the costa and lateral veins, the costa and lateral veins prominent, but more so beneath, the margins entire; petioles 2.5-8 cm long, ridged, strigose. Inflores-cences of terminal or axillary spikes borne singly or in clusters, 8-12 cm long, to 4 cm wide excluding the corollas, moderately compact; peduncle ca. 1 cm long, stri-gose; rachis glabrous; bracts imbricate, spreading with age, orange or red, rhom-boid-ovate to ovate, 25-30 mm long, 10-15 mm wide, apically acute to obtuse, often crisped and retrorse, glabrous, with 2, dull, elliptic, alveolate, submarginal glandular areas just above the middle, ca. 4 mm long and 1 mm wide, the margins entire, ciliolate; bractlets lanceolate, 8 mm long, 2 mm wide, keeled, striate nerved, the keel pubescent, especially so toward the apex. Flowers with the calyx segments lanceolate, to 16 mm long, striate nerved, glabrous, glandular-punctate on both surfaces, the posterior segment to 6 mm wide, the anterior pair 3 mm wide, the lateral pair 2.5 mm wide; corolla orange red, to ca. 6 cm long, densely glandular-puberulous, the tube 5.5 cm long, basally 3 mm wide, 7 mm broad at the throat, the upper lip erect, oblong, 15 mm long, 2-lobed, the lobes tri-angular-ovate, 6 mm long, acute, the lower lip 3-lobed, the middle lobe oblong, 15 mm long, 8 mm wide, the lateral lobes similar but shorter; stamens exserted, nearly reaching the tip of the upper lip, the anthers 9 mm long, basally apiculate. Capsules clavate, glabrous, densely and minutely pitted, drying dark brown, ca. 3.3 cm long, 6 mm wide, 6 mm thick; seeds dark brown, unevenly oblong, 6 mm long, 4 mm wide, muricate.
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