Megaskepasma erythrochlamys Lindau, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 5: 666. 1897. The specific epithet is from the Greek pulpós, red, and xλauts, bract. The type was collected in the Province of Mérida, Venezuela, by Funck & Schlim (No. 1171).
Suffruticose, up to 2 meters high; stems quadrangular, brown- puberulous; leaf blades oblong, up to 19 cm. long and 7 cm. wide (the lowermost probably larger), short-acuminate (the tip itself rounded and apiculate), cuneate at base, rather firm, entire or undulate, both surfaces sparingly and minutely hirtellous, the hairs confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins (12 to 15 pairs), up to 0.56 mm. long, cysto- liths none; spikes solitary, terminal up to 18 cm. long and 4 cm. broad, the peduncle (about 3.5 cm. long) and rachis brown-puberulous, the hairs up to 0.32 mm. long, usually variously curved; bracts ovate, up to 44 mm. long and 17 mm. wide, subobtuse and mucronulate at tip, narrowed at base, purple or red, sparingly and finely strigose, the hairs up to 0.56 mm. long, confined chiefly to the costa; bractlets ovate- lanceolate, subfalcate, up to 36 mm. long and 8 mm, wide, acute, the pubescence similar to that of the bracts; calyx segments lanceolate, up to 15 mm. long and 3 mm. wide at base, narrowed to a slender blunt tip, rather densely hirsute, the hairs upwardly curved, brown, vitreous, up to 0.48 mm. long, some of the shorter ones gland-tipped; corolla white (Lindau) (becoming deep pink when young, Killip & Smith), pilosulous, the hairs mostly retrorsely curved, up to 0.4 mm. long, white, the corolla tube about 22 mm. long, 2 to 3 mm. broad,  straight or slightly curved, the upper lip lanceolate, 36 mm. long and 5 mm. wide, bilobed at tip, the lobes oblong, 1.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, recurved, the lower lip narrowly cuneate, 32 mm. long, 9 mm. wide near the middle, 3-lobed, the lobes 7 mm. long and 3 mm. wide,  obtuse; stamens exserted about 3 cm. beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, the anthers 4.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. broad, the bases of the lobes mucronulate; ovary 2 mm. long, glabrous; capsules not seen. SANTANDER: Bucaramanga (cultivated), Killip & Smith 14979 (US).