Herbs up to 30 cm. high; stems subterete, ascending, rooting at the lower nodes, hirsute, the hairs ascending or spreading, light brown, up to 1.5 mm. long; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 6.5 cm. long and 2 cm. wide, short-acuminate (the tip itself subacute), nar- rowed at base and decurrent on the petiole, moderately firm, entire or undulate, both surfaces hirsute, the hairs up to 1.25 mm. long, ascending or subappressed, light brownish, the costa and lateral veins (about 6 pairs) more or less prominent beneath (hidden somewhat by the pubescence), obscure above; petioles about 0.5 cm. long, pilose, the hairs similar to those of the stem; spikes terminal, solitary, about 1.5 cm. long and broad, the rachis densely brownish pilose; bracts ovate, herbaceous, 2 cm. long and 16 mm. wide (at least the lower- most pair), acuminate, the margins ciliate (hairs up to 1 mm. long) and bearing about 4 slender ascending teeth up to (the lowermost) 4 mm. long, the upper or inner surface glabrous or sparingly hirsute at base, the lower or outer surface hirsute, the hairs mostly borne in the costal region but diminishing toward the margins; bractlets narrowly lanceolate, 12.5 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, striate-nerved, the inner surface glabrous, the outer hirsute, the hairs up to 1.5 mm. long, ascending; calyx 12 mm. long, the segments narrowly lanceolate, the upper half hirsute and ciliate, the lower half glabrous, in other respects resembling the bractlets; corolla rose, sparingly and minutely pubescent, 22 mm. long, narrowly hypocrateriform, the lower part of the tube about 1 mm. broad, the mouth 2.5 mm. broad, the lips subequal, about 8 mm. long, ascending, the upper obcordate, about 6 mm. wide, the lower 3-lobed, the lobes suborbicular, about 3 mm. long, the middle one 4 mm. wide, the lateral 3 mm. wide, all rounded; stamens reaching the mouth of the corolla tube, the anthers about 1.5 mm. long; ovary glabrous, tipped by a few straight erect white hairs about 0.38 mm. long; capsules not seen.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 2059099, collected in temperate forest at San Isidro, 8 km. south of Gachala, Cordillera Oriental, Department of Cundinamarca, Colombia, 2,450 meters altitude, May 26, 1944, by Martin L. Grant and F. R. Fosberg (No. 9319).
Aphelandra fosbergii is nearest A. silvicola. In that species, however, the leaf blades have colored veins and the teeth of the bracts are all low instead of sharp and slender.