Suffrutescent shrub ca. 1 m high; stems quadrangular near apex, terete in older portions, glabrous to tomentulose. Leaves narrowly elliptic, to 15.5 cm long and 2 cm wide, apically acuminate, basally attenuate, sparingly strigose along the costa above, strigose mostly on the costa and the lateral veins beneath, drying to dark green above, pale beneath, the margins entire; petioles (unwinged por- tion) 0.5-1 cm long, pubescence that of the stem. Inflorescences in terminal spikes to 14 cm long, 2 cm wide at anthesis (excluding flowers), the bracts imbricate, the peduncles short, to ca. 0.5 cm long, pubescence as the stem, the rachis sericeous; bracts green, rhomboid-elliptic to 15 mm long, 5.5 mm wide, apically acuminate, sericeous, with two shiny, oval, submarginal clusters of 2-6 oval glands, each ca. 0.5 mm long, the margins above the middle with ca. 3 pairs of spinetipped teeth to ca. 2 mm long; bractlets lanceolate, 8-10 mm long, 1-1.25 mm wide, keeled, pilosulus mostly along the keel. Flowers with the calyx seg-ments lanceolate, 9-10 mm long, striate-nerved, mostly glabrous, the margins ciliolate toward the apex, the dorsal segment 2 mm wide, the lateral pair 1.25 mm wide, the anterior pair 1.0 mm wide; corolla bright red, ca. 4 cm long, the tube sparingly puberulous and minutely papillose, 2.5 cm long, basally 2 mm wide, 4.5 mm wide at the throat, the lobes with sericeous hairs apically, the upper lip erect, oblong-ovate, ca. 15 mm long, 4.5 mm wide, 2-lobed, the lobes apically acuminate, 5 mm long, basally 2 mm wide, curved outward, the lower lip spreading, appearing 1-lobed, the lobe ca. 15 mm long, 4 mm wide, apically acuminate, the tip recurved; stamens exserted. Capsules green, elliptic, ca. 12 mm long, 6 mm wide, 4 mm thick, shiny, sparingly puberulous, minutely punctate; mature seeds not seen.
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