Trailing or ascendent herbs up to 30 cm. high, rather densely puberulous with retrorsely recurved hairs up to 0.28 mm. long, these septate, the internodes up to 5 cm. long and 2 mm. thick, quad- rangular; leaf blades oblong-elliptic to elliptic or obovate, up to 9 cm. long and 5.5 cm. wide, rounded or broadly obtuse at tip, acute to obtuse or slightly cordate at base, moderately firm, entire, the upper surface glabrous, mottled green, the cystoliths prominent, up to 0.28 mm. long, the lower surface hirsute, the hairs curved, ascending, up to 0.5 mm. long, confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins (6 or 7 pairs), these prominent on both surfaces but more so beneath than above, the cystoliths prominent; petioles rather stout, up to 1.5 mm. long, hirsute; flowers borne in simple terminal lax spikes up to 18 cm. long, these sometimes branched, bearing a pair of lateral spikes near the base, the peduncles up to 5 cm. long, retrorsely hirsute, the pubescence that of the stems, the lowermost internodes of the spikes up to 3.5 cm. long, the others successively shorter toward the tip of the spikes, hirsute like the stems and peduncles; bracts triangular, 3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide at base, acute, mostly glabrous except the costa, this stout and more or less hirsute; bractlets lanceolate, about 3 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, acute; calyx 5 to 6 mm. long, deeply segmented, the segments 5, narrowly lanceolate, four of these 5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide at base, the other 3.5 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide at base, all glabrous except the costa and margins, these hirtellous and ciliate with hairs about 0.2 mm. long; corolla pink, rather sparingly hirtellous, 10 to 12 mm. long, the tube subcylindric, 1.5 mm. broad at base, 2 mm. broad at mouth, the lips subequal, 6 mm. long, the upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, about 2 mm. wide, the lower lip spreading, 3-lobed, the lobes oblong, about 2 mm. wide, rounded; stamens reaching the tip of the upper corolla lip, glabrous, the lobes superposed, the upper lobe separated about 0.5 mm. from the lower by the connective, rounded at base, the lower lobe strongly calcarate, both lobes about 0.75 mm. long; capsules clavate, about 1 cm. long, 3 min. broad and 1.5 mm. thick, hirtellous, the hairs spreading or retrorse, septate, about 0.1 mm. long; retinacula 1.5 mm. long, slightly curved, the tip thin and truncate; seed (immature) brownish, about 2 mm. long and broad, faintly tuberculate. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1661602, collected at Camp Puente, in the vicinity of Barranca Bermeja, in the Magdalena Valley between the Ríos Sogomoso and Colorado, Department of Santander, Colombia, 100 to 500 meters altitude, February 27, 1935, by Oscar Haught (No. 1581).
Haught's No. 1603, collected in the Carare Valley in the vicinity of Puerto Berrio, between the Ríos Carare and Magdalena, Santander, 100 to 700 meters altitude, March 25, 1935, is also of this species. Justicia daidalea is very closely related to Justicia steyermarkii Leonard, comb. nov. (Beloperone steyermarkii Leonard, Fieldiana 28: 555. 1953) from Venezuela (type collected in Yaracuy). Justicia steyermarkii is a smaller plant, not exceeding 18 cm. in height; its leaves are thinner, with no indication of the white mottling so prominent in J. daidalea; the inflorescence is much smaller in all parts, the spikes rarely exceeding 4 cm. in length; and the corollas are purple instead of pink. No dissection could be made of the few corollas present on the specimens cited to show whether the upper lip was lobed or entire. The specific epithet is from the Greek sadáλeos, curiously wrought or variegated, in allusion to the handsome mottled leaves.