Leptostachya martiana Nees ex Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulphur 147. 1844. Type from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Sinclair.
Justicia martiana Lindau, Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. 4, Abt. 3b: 350. 1895. Based on Leptostachya martiana Nees.
Herbs; stems subquadrangular, coarsely sulcate, hirsute, the hairs spreading or ascending, borne more or less in two lines, the cystoliths slender, parallel, up to 0.15 mm. long; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, up to 16 cm. long and 22 mm. wide, slenderly acuminate, narrowed or rounded at base, moderately firm, entire or undulate, both surfaces glabrous or minutely and sparingly hispid, the hairs up to 0.3 mm. long, the cystoliths of the upper surface easily seen under a lens, up to 0.28 mm. long; petioles up to 12 mm. long, glabrous or rather sparingly hirtellous; flowers borne in dense terminal panicles, branch- ing at base and composed of verticillasters of numerous slender ascending spikes, the panicles up to 25 cm. long and 12 cm. broad at base, the spikes up to 4 cm. long, the lowermost internode of the main rachis about 2 cm. long, the others successively shorter towards tip of inflorescence, the internodes of the spikes 2 to 7 mm. long, these and the main rachis rather densely hirsute, the hairs variously curved and up to 1.5 mm. long, the flowers secund; bracts subtending the verticillasters subulate, up to 5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous; bractlets up to 3 mm. long, subulate, carinate, glabrous or sparingly hirtellous, the bracts and bractlets subtending the flowers similar to those subtending the verticillasters but slightly smaller; calyx 4 mm. long, deeply segmented, minutely hirtellous, the hairs ascending, up to 0.1 mm. long, the segments subulate, up to 0.5 mm. wide near base; corolla blue (Klug), sparingly pubescent (the hairs up to 0.13 mm. long), 6 mm. long, the upper lip 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, emarginate at tip, the lower lip spreading,
3 mm. long, about 3 mm. wide, 3-lobed, the lobes rounded, about 1 mm. in diameter; stamens 2.5 mm. long, the filaments slender, the anther lobes slightly superposed, somewhat obliquely attached, the upper 0.4 mm. long and 0.2 mm. wide, the lower slightly shorter, both rounded at base, the connective 0.25 mm. wide; style 5 mm. long, glabrous, the stigma minutely bilobed and rounded.
Woods, ditches, and grassy meadows in Colombia, Brazil, French Guiana, and Ecuador.
Justicia martiana is closely related to J. comosa but can be easily recognized by its large dense hirsute panicles. The species shows considerable variation. The flowers vary from white to blue. Schom- burgk's No. 305, the type of var. hispida Nees, from French Guiana, has a glandular pubescent inflorescence and ovate leaf blades with rounded or subcordate bases. Klug's specimens, cited here, have slenderly lanceolate leaf blades gradually narrowed to the base, but those of Uribe-P., although likewise narrowly lanceolate, are rounded at base and briefly decurrent on the petiole. The capsules of Schom- burgk's plant are 4 mm. long, 2.25 mm. wide, and about 1 mm. thick, short-clavate and rather densely hirtellous.