Herbs up to 1 meter high; stems slender and profusely branched, furrowed, moderately pilose, the hairs spreading, up to 0.58 mm. long, evenly or sometimes bifariously distributed, the lowermost internodes 10 cm. long or more; leaf blades ovate, up to 6.5 cm. long and 3.5 cm. wide, slenderly acuminate, rounded at base, hirsute, the hairs mostly confined to the costa and lateral veins (4 or 5 pairs), up to 0.5 mm. long, the upper surface bearing numerous crowded whitish cysto- liths, these very conspicuous under a lens and up to 0.13 mm. long; petioles about 4 mm. long, rather sparingly hirsute and con- spicuously marked by cystoliths; flowers borne in lax spikes, these both terminal and axillary, up to 18 cm. long, forming loose terminal panicles up to 30 cm. long, the lowermost pairs of bracts subtending the axillary spikes resembling the stem leaves but slightly smaller and sessile, the other pairs progressively smaller toward tip of panicle, the lowermost pair of bracts subtending the flowers suborbicular, about 5 mm. in diameter, sessile, long-apiculate, the succeeding floral bracts lanceolate, up to 3 mm. long and 1 mm. wide at base, acuminate, sparingly hirtellous, the lowermost internode of the flowering spike 1.5 to 2 cm. long, the others successively shorter, these and the internodes of the panicle hirsute, the hairs similar to those of the stems, the flowers borne in pairs at the nodes of the spike (sometimes accompanied by one or more rudimentary flowers); calyx about 5 mm. long, the segments lanceolate, 3 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, sparingly hirtellous; corolla lilac-red (Lehmann), glabrous, the tube up to 2.5 cm. long, very slender, 1.25 mm. in diameter at base, gradually reduced to 0.75 mm. about the middle and thence enlarged to 2 mm. at mouth, the lobes more or less spreading, obovate, about 8 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, rounded at tip; stamens included, 2.5 mm. long, glabrous; anthers 1.5 mm. long, 0.25 mm. broad; staminodes 0.5 mm. long; capsules clavate, 1.8 cm. long, the
slender solid stipe 7 mm. long, 1 mm. in diameter, glabrous, the seed-bearing portion 3 mm. broad and about 1 mm. thick, sparingly puberulous, the hairs spreading, 0.11 mm. long, gland-tipped; seed flat, whitish, muricate.
Type in the Kew Herbarium, collected in a forest glade along the Río Sucio, between Dabeiba and Uramita, Department of Antioquia, Colombia, 400 to 800 meters altitude, October 1891, by F. C. Lehmann (No. 7266).
According to Lehman's notes the plants of this species are "Weeds up to 1 m. in height with profusely ramified and thin stems." The leaves are "dark sap-green" and the flowers "lilac-red."
The specific epithet is from the Greek, abounding in young shoots, in allusion to the branching habit of the plant.