Suffrutescent; stems glabrous or puberulous toward tip; leaf blades ovate, 21 cm. long and 10 cm. wide, acuminate, subcordate to rounded at base and decurrent on the petiole, entire or undulate, bright green, the upper surface glabrous or the costa strigose toward base of blade, the lower surface minutely punctate, glabrous except the costa and lateral veins (11 or 12 pairs), these puberulous; petioles up to 3 cm. long, strigose; spike terminal, 15 cm. long, about 2 cm. broad, the rachis finely and densely pubescent, the hairs spreading; bracts imbricate, ascending, rhombic, up to 27 mm. long and 12 mm. wide, puberulous and veiny on both sides, the lower third and tip of bract entire, the upper portion bearing about 8 slender, more or less curved, subulate teeth up to 4 mm. long; bractlets subulate, 1 cm. long, striate, puberulous; calyx segments subequal, about 12 mm. long, striate, puberulous, slenderly acuminate, the posterior segment 4.25 mm. wide, 2- or 3-toothed at apex, the anterior segments 2.5 mm. wide, the lateral ones about 2 mm. wide, both anterior and lateral segments often bear- ing 1 or more minute teeth near tip; corolla 4 cm. long, red, rather densely pubescent, the tube narrow, 3 cm. long, about 3 mm. broad at base and 5 mm. broad at mouth, the lips subequal, the upper lip ovate, about 15 mm. long and 12 mm. wide, obtuse or rounded, the lower lip 3-lobed, the lobes subequal, ovate, about 12 mm. long and 7 mm. wide, obtuse; ovary glabrous; capsules not seen. Type in the herbarium of the Riksmuseet, Stockholm, collected in primitive forest at La Costa, Department of El Cauca, Colombia, 900 meters altitude, July 27, 1986, by Kjell von Sneidern (No. 869). Fragment of type in the U. S. National Herbarium. CAUCA: "Dense damp forests around El Peñol on the western slopes of the West Andes of Popayán, 1,800 to 2,000 meters altitude, May" [Lehmann's field notes], Lehmann 8632 (K). Lehmann states that the plant is a herbaceous. shrub with slender, weakly ramified stems up to 1.3 meters in height and the leaves are dark green and the flowers of a luminous vermilion color. can be distinguished from A. impressa, which has superficially similar bracts, by the shape of its leaf blades. These are subcordate or rounded at base instead of being gradually narrowed as in A. impressa. The specific name puberula alludes to the puberulous bracts.