Shrubby; stem terete, minutely pubescent or pilosulous at the nodes; leaves drooping; leaf blades oblong, up to 17 cm. long and 5.5 cm. wide (flowering stems), acuminate at apex, cuneate and decurrent on the petiole at base, both surfaces softly puberulous except the costa and veins of the upper surface, these pilose; petioles 1 to 2 cm. long; spike terminal, solitary, up to 16 cm. long, 3 to 4 cm. broad, the bracts closely imbricate, erect-spreading or the lowermost drooping, the rachis softly glandular-pilosulous; bracts ovate, about 3 cm. long, 2 cm. broad or the lowermost somewhat smaller, acute, thin, glandular-pubescent, colored (?), drying to light reddish; bractlets linear-lanceolate, 18 mm. long, 2 mm. wide at base, striate-nerved, soft glandular-pubes- cent; calyx segments subequal, lanceolate, the posterior one 4.5 mm wide, the two anterior each 3.5 mm. wide, the lateral ones each 2.5 mm. wide, all slenderly acuminate, striate, glandular-pubescent; corolla about 5 cm. long, dull yellow, marked by small purple spots, glandular- pubescent, the hairs minute except on the lips, here intermixed with longer hairs reaching 2 mm. in length, the tube 4 mm. in diameter at base, 5 mm. at throat, the upper lip erect, oblong, 15 to 20 mm. long and 6 mm. wide, 2-toothed at apex, the teeth 2 mm. long, very acute, the lower lip 3-lobed, spreading, the middle lobe oval, about 25 mm. long and 11 mm. wide, obtusish, the lateral lobes narrowly elliptic, about 7 mm. long and 2 mm. wide, obtuse or rounded; ovary and cap- sules not seen. 

Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1041351, collected along a quebrada thicket east of Neiva, Department of Huila, Colombia, 700 to 1,500 meters altitude, July 31, 1917, by H. H. Rusby and Francis W. Pennell (No. 470). An isotype is in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. Holton's collection (K, NY) from Jicara- mata near the Río Tuluá, Department of El Valle, is also of this species. 

Aphelandra anomala is a unique species easily recognized by its rather large, thin, glandular-pubescent bracts and thickly purple- dotted, yellowish corollas.