Delicate herbs up to 13 cm. high; stems decumbent, producing erect branches from the nodes, 0.5 to 0.75 mm. in diameter, subterete, reddish brown, pilose, the hairs white, appressed to subappressed, up to 0.6 mm. long; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 25 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, obtuse at tip and cuneate at base, firm, entire, both sur- faces puberulous and pilose, the minute hairs rigid, acute, up to 0.03 mm. long, the long hairs weak, white, up to 2 mm. long, both long and short hairs ascending, the mature blades becoming more or less gla- brate at maturity, the lower surface more densely pilose than the upper; petioles up to 2 mm. long, pilose; spikes both terminal and lateral, up to 4 cm. long and 5 to 10 mm. broad, the rachis pilose, the hairs similar to those of the stem; bracts at tip of spike about 5 mm. long and 1 mm. wide, becoming, toward base, larger and intergrading into the stem leaves; bractlets oblong-linear, 2.5 mm. long and 0.5 mm. wide, obtuse and ciliate; pedicels 0.5 mm. long, pilose; calyx 5 mm. long, the segments narrowly lanceolate, acuminate (tip itself blunt), the posterior segment 0.5 to 0.75 mm. wide, the anterior seg- ments 4, about 0.25 mm. wide, all densely white-pilose, the hairs similar to those of the stem; corolla white, puberulous above, glabrous at base, 5 to 6 mm. long, the tube 2.5 mm. long and 0.75 mm. in diameter at base and 1.25 mm. at mouth, the upper lip about 1 mm. long, bilobed, the lobes rounded, the lower lip 2.5 mm. long, 3-lobed, the middle lobe obovate, 2 mm. long, 1.4 mm. wide, rounded and shallowly emarginate, the lateral lobes oblong, 1.25 mm. long and 0.75 mm. wide, rounded; stamens included, the shorter pair reaching about the middle of the corolla tube, the longer pair reaching the mouth of the corolla; style about 2 mm. long, glabrous, the stigma bilobed, the lobes minute; capsules 4 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide and 0.5 mm. thick,
glabrous below, puberulous at tip; seed spherical, brown, about 0.25 mm. in diameter, verrucose.
Type in the Kew Herbarium, collected on llano at edge of woods at Cabuyaro, on the Río Meta, Meta, Colombia, January 7, 1899, by T. A. Sprague (No. 27). Isotype: K.
Staurogyne leptocaulis is readily distinguishable from S. lepida- gathoides Leonard (described from the Department of Bolívar) by its slenderer spikes and narrower leaf blades. In S. lepidagathoides the latter are as much as 7.5 cm. long and 2.5 cm. wide.