Justicia rubra Vahl, Eclog. Amer. 2: 1. 1798. Type collected at Santa Marta, Department of Magdalena, Colombia, by Rohr.
Thyrsacanthus ruber Nees in DC. Prodr. 11: 326. 1847. Based on Justicia rubra Vahl.
Odontonema rubrum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 492, 1891. Based on Justicia rubra Vahl.
Suffrutescent, the branches spreading, the upper portions subte- tragonal, rather sparingly hirtellous, the hairs spreading or ascending, up to about 0.5 mm. long, more or less curved and disposed in two lines, the lower portions subterete, light gray, subnitid; leaf blades lanceolate to elliptic, up to 10 cm. long and 5.2 cm. wide, short- acuminate, narrowed at base, moderately firm, entire or undulate, both surfaces glabrous or sparingly hirsute toward base, the hairs 1 mm. long, the upper surface drying dull olive, the costa and lateral veins (5 or 6 pairs) obscure, the lower surface lighter and nitid, the venation, including the coarsely reticulated veinlets, rather prominent; petioles up to 5 mm. long, glabrous or sparingly hirsute; spikes terminal, slender, the flowers more or less secund, the peduncle up to 2.5 cm. long, this and the rachis hirtellous, the hairs spreading, 0.5 mm. long; bracts lanceolate, the lowermost pair 10 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide, the others successively smaller toward tip of spike, all acuminate, glabrous or sparingly hirsute; bractlets similar to the bracts but much smaller; pedicels slender, ca. 4 mm. long, hirtellous, the hairs 125μ long; calyx 5 mm. long, the segments narrowly triangular, 4 to 4.5 mm. long, 1 to 1.25 mm. wide at base, acute, sparingly to moderately puberulous, the hairs up to 50μ long; corollas 2.5 cm. long, red, finely and moderately puberulous, the tube 2 mm. broad at base, narrowed at 5 mm. above base to 1.25 mm., thence gradually enlarged to 6 mm. at 15 mm. above base and constricted again at throat to 3 to 4 mm., the lips 5 mm. long, subequal, the upper deeply 2-lobed, the lower 3-lobed, the lobes suborbicular, 4 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, obtuse;  filaments about 9 mm. long, glabrous; anthers 3.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. broad; staminodes 4 to 5 mm. long, glabrous; ovary glabrous; style about 2 cm. long, glabrous, the stigma linear, but slightly broader than the style; capsules not seen.
The largish red flowers more or less secund in terminal loose racemes suggest, as Nees points out in his description of Thyrsacanthus ruber, the species Odontonema schomburgkianum from British Guiana. The above description was drawn from Smith's No. 1390, a plant which differs in several respects from Rohr's type. The leaf blades of Smith's specimen are broadly lanceolate or elliptic (5.2 cm. wide) instead of narrowly lanceolate (2 cm. wide) as in Rohr's collection, and the racemes are hirtellous instead of glabrous. The large red corollas, however, with their short lips divided into obtuse suborbi- cular lobes, typical of both Rohr's and Smith's specimens, leads one to include them in the same species. O. bracteolatum also varies in the relative width of the leaf blades and in the amount of pubescence on stems and inflorescences.
The following notes accompany H. H. Smith's sheet in the New York Botanical Garden: "Shrub, 2-4 ft. with few branches, and often drooping or procumbent; air roots are frequent. Flower scarlet. Locally common in damp mountain forest about 5000 ft. The specimens were collected above Las Nubes, Dec. 17."
MAGDALENA: Santa Marta, H. H. Smith 1390 (NY, GH, Ph, S); Rohr s.n., represented by photograph Field Mus. No. 22203 (US).