Justicia bracteolata Jacq. Coll. Bot. 3: 253. 1789.
Odontonema bracteolatum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 492. 1891. Based on Justicia bracteolata Jacq.
Suffrutescent plants up to 3 meters high, sometimes becoming diffuse and subscandent with age; stems erect, simple or sparingly branched, the lower portions terete, 7 mm. in diameter or more, glabrous, bearing minute subpunctiform cystoliths and low parallel elongated lenticels (up to 3 mm. long), the upper portion and rachis quadrangular or subquadrangular and more or less hirsute, the hairs whitish, spreading or ascending, up to 0.5 mm. long; leaf blades lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, up to 15 cm. long and 4.5 cm. wide but usually narrower, acuminate, narrowed at base, moderately firm, dull to subnitid, entire or undulate, both surfaces sparingly hirsute or glabrous, the hairs ascending or spreading, up to 0.5 mm. long, the cystoliths of the upper surface numerous, conspicuous under a lens, up to 225 long, the costa and lateral veins (5 or 6 pairs) obscure to rather prominent, the veinlets coarsely reticulate; petioles up to 1 cm. long but usually only about 5 mm. long, hirtellous to hirsute, or sometimes subglabrous; flowers borne in racemes or narrow terminal loose to dense panicles usually 10 to 20 cm. long and 1 to 5 cm. broad, the lateral branches of loose panicles usually basal, solitary or in pairs, up to 2 cm. long, several-flowered, the upper portion of the panicle often racemose, the flowers solitary in the axils of the bracts, the basal nodes of the inflorescence often bearing a pair of small leaves; peduncles of the lateral branches and pedicels slender, flattened, hirtellous, up to 5 mm. long; bracts subending the flowers subulate or narrowly tri- angular, curved, up to 3 mm. long, carinate, hirtellous, the hairs ascending, 0.25 mm. long; calyx 2 to 3.5 mm. long, hirtellous to subglabrous, the segments lanceolate, slenderly acuminate, 0.5 to 0.75 mm. wide at base; corollas scarlet, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, moderately pubescent, the hairs mostly spreading, 100 to 125, long, the tube 3.5 mm. broad at base, narrowed at 6 mm. above base to 1.5 mm., thence enlarged to 5 mm. at throat, the upper portion subventricose, the upper lip oblong, 10 to 15 mm. long, 4 to 5 mm. wide, 2-lobed at tip, the lobes oblong, 4 to 5 mm. long, 2 to 2.5 mm. wide, obliquely obtuse at tip, the lower lip equaling or slightly longer than the upper, deeply 3-lobed, the lobes oblong-lanceolate, up to 13 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, obliquely obtuse at apex; stamens reaching notch of the upper lip of the corolla, the filaments flattened, hirtellous near base, the hairs up to 150μ long, the anthers 4 mm. long and 1.5 mm. broad; staminodes up to 1 cm. long, tipped by rudimentary anthers; ovary glabrous; capsules clavate, up to 25 mm. long, 5 mm. broad, 4 mm. thick, the solid stipe slender, 1.5 mm. broad at base, 3.5 mm. broad at base of cavity, the tip of the capsule acute; retinacula 3 mm. long, subulate; seeds 4, suborbicular, 3.5 mm. long and broad, 1 mm. thick, light brown, deeply muricate.
Odontonema bracteolatum varies greatly in the relative width of leaf blades, the amount of pubescence of the rachis and upper portion of the stems, and in the amount of branching of the panicle. The leaf blades of Dugand & García-Barriga's No. 2493 do not exceed 21 mm. in width whereas in Allen's No. 866 they are as much as 4.5 cm. wide. Smith's Bonda specimen possesses a densely hirsute stem and rachis but a slender, lax, almost racemose inflorescence, only the lowermost flowers borne on sparingly branched peduncles. At the other extreme, Haught's No. 3946 has a rachis and upper stem portion almost glabrous and a compact crowded panicle, its lateral branches produced several in a cluster from the base to the tip of the inflores- cence. Variation between these extremes are exhibited by the other specimens cited.
The species is usually found growing along shaded streams in forests at 70 to 800 meters altitude. It produces showy panicles of bright red corollas and blooms more or less throughout the year. Endemic.
ATLANTICO: Piojo, vicinity of Barranquilla, Bro. Elias 742 (US).
BOLÍVAR: Between Cartagena and Turbaco, Dugand & Jaramillo 2852 (US). MAGDALENA: Bonda, H. H. Smith 1389 (in part) (NY, US). Cincinati, Giacometto 94 (US). Codazzi, Haught 3727 (US). Jiracasaca, H. H. Smith 1389 (in part) (NY, Ph). Manaure, Haught 3946 (US). Poponte, Allen 866 (Mo). Río Ariguaní, near Caracolicito, Dugand & Garcia-Barriga 2493 (US). Río Hacha, Haught 4484 (US). Minca, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, alt. 600 m., Cardona, Gutiérrez & Barkley 18C. 089 (Med, US).
NORTE DE SANTANDER: La Esmeralda, Killip & Smith 20932 (GH, NY, US). WITHOUT LOCALITY: Photograph (Field Mus. No. 32704) of Jacquin Herbarium sheet from Vienna Herbarium (US).