Suffrutescent herbs up to 50 cm. high; stems simple or moderately branched, subterete, bifariously puberulous, the hairs retrorsely curved, up to about 0.16 mm. long, the internodes 2 to 5 cm. long, the lower woody portions of the stems glabrous, the bark gray; leaf blades ovate, up to 6 cm. long and 2.5 cm. wide, obtuse to subacute at tip, acute to obtuse at base, moderately firm, entire or undulate, the upper surface glabrous or the costa strigose or hirsute, the hairs about 0.16 mm. long, appressed or curved and ascending, the cystoliths numerous and conspicuous, up to 0.1 cm. long, the lower surface glabrous or the costa bearing a few scattered hairs, the cystoliths conspicuous, crowded and numerous; petioles up to 4 mm. long, glabrous or the channels sparingly puberulous; flowers borne in green terminal sessile heads about 2 cm. long and 2 to 3 cm. broad, these subtended by a pair of ovate leaves up to 5 cm. long and 2 cm. wide; bracts lanceolate, green and leaflike, up to 1.8 cm. long and 3.5 mm. wide, acute, veiny, the surfaces glabrous except the puberulous lower inner surface, the margins ciliate, the hairs ascending, up to 1 mm. long; bractlets narrowly lanceolate, up to 15 mm. long and 1.75 mm. wide near base, gradually narrowed to a slender tip (the tip itself blunt), glabrous except a small puberulous area at base of inner surface and the ciliate margins; calyx segments lanceolate, up to 12.5 mm. long and 2 mm. wide near base, acuminate, the tip curved, the costa prominent, bearing dorsally a few ascending hairs up to 1 mm. long, the margins ciliate, the hairs white, spreading or ascending, up to 1.5 mm. long; corollas purplish-red, rather copiously hirtellous except the glabrous basal portion, the hairs spreading, up to 0.16 mm. long, the tube 3 mm. broad at base, enlarged to 4 mm. immediately above base, thence gradually narrowed to 3 mm. at mouth, the upper lip erect, narrowly ovate, 1 cm. long, 3 mm. wide at base, narrowed to a slender bilobed tip, the lobes oblong, 2 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, rounded, the lower lip more or less spreading, about 10 mm. long, 3-lobed, the lobes ovate, about 7 mm. long and 6.5 mm. wide, rounded; stamens exserted about 4 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla, the
anther lobes superposed and obliquely attached to the connective, about 2 mm. long and 0.5 mm. broad, the lower lobe bluntly spurred, the spur 0.26 mm. long and broad; capsules ovoid, 14 mm. long, 6 mm. wide, 3 to 4 mm. thick, abruptly acute, glabrous, 4-seeded; retinacula nearly straight, 2.25 mm. long, the tip 1 mm. wide, thin, erose; seeds subspherical, light brown, glabrous.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1707050, collected near Guataquicito, Department of Tolima, Colombia, 500 meters altitude, November 3, 1938, by Oscar Haught (No. 2414).
Pérez Arbeláez's No. 3105 (US), collected at Purificación, Depart- ment of Tolima, July 3, 1934, and Killip, Dugand and Jaramillo's
No. 38289 (US), collected at the Hacienda El Cucharo between Tocaima and Pubenza, Department of Cundinamarca, 350 meters altitude, May 7, 1944, are also of this species.
Chaetochlamys columbiensis has the general appearance of C. ciliata Lindau from the State of Pará, Brazil, but that species has larger flowers (the tube 25 mm. long instead of 18 to 20 mm. and its upper lip entire instead of bilobed) and larger leaf blades (10 to 12 cm. long and 4 cm. wide).