Low, densely branched shrubs up to 60 cm. high; stems subquadran- gular, or the lower portions terete, puberulous, the hairs strongly recurved, about 0.1 mm. long; leaf blades ovate, 3 to 8 cm. long, 1.3 to 3 cm. wide, short-acuminate or acute, narrowed at base and de- current on the petiole, entire, rather thin, the upper surface drying green, glabrous or nearly so or the costa sparingly hirtellous, the lower surface gray green, puberulous, the hairs up to 0.11 mm. long, ascend- ing or those of the costa somewhat longer, the venation faint but more prominent beneath than above, the cystoliths numerous and conspicuous under a lens, up to 0.28 mm. long; petioles slender, 5 to 13 mm. long; spikes solitary, terminating the branches, 3 to 6 cm. long, about 5 mm. thick, the internodes 2 to 4 mm. thick, the peduncle 5 or 6 mm. long, quadrangular, puberulous with curved hairs; bracts and bractlets similar and subequal, subulate, 4 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide at base, puberulous, ciliolate, the costa prominent; calyx segments 5, subulate, 4 of them 5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, the anterior segment rudimentary, 1.5 mm. long, all puberulous and ciliolate, the costa prominent; corolla (immature) 8 mm. long, light purple, puberulous except the lower glabrous portion, the lips subequal, 4 mm. long, the upper lip ovate, rounded, the lower 3-lobed, the lobes rounded; stamens barely exserted, the anthers superposed, 0.75 mm. long, the upper one obliquely attached to a flattened con- nective 0.25 mm. wide, the lower vertically attached, the filaments glabrous; capsules clavate, sparingly puberulous, 7 mm. long, 2 mm. broad, 1 mm. thick; retinacula 1.5 mm. long, thin and rounded at tip; seed flattened, suborbicular, black, muricate. Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1709421, collected along stream in dense forest along the Caño Blanco, 7 km. southeast of Río La Jagua, Department of Magdalena, Colombia, 200 to 300 meters altitude, August 21, 1943, by Oscar Haught (No. 3632). Justicia aëthes, though closely related to J. polygonoides, can be easily recognized by its puberulous stems, leaves, and spikes and by the peculiar rudimentary anterior calyx lobe. The specific epithet is from the greek ȧons, peculiar.