Large herbs, probably up to 1 meter high or more; stems subquad- rangular, glabrous or sparingly puberulous at the nodes, the hairs rigid, upwardly appressed, the cystoliths numerous, subpunctiform; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, up to 17 cm. long and 8 cm. wide, short- acuminate, the tip slender, narrowed at base, firm, undulate, both surfaces glabrous, the costa, lateral veins (usually 8 pairs) and the coarsely reticulated veinlets prominent, the cystoliths of both surfaces numerous and conspicuous, 0.24 mm. long; petioles 2 to 2.5 cm. long, glabrous or sparingly strigose; spikes axillary and terminal, usually about 6 cm. long; peduncles 8 to 13 mm. long, upwardly hirtellous, the hairs rigid, subappressed, mostly about 0.11 mm. long; rachis sub- quadrangular, about 0.75 mm. in diameter, densely hirtellous with rigid upwardly subappressed hairs, the internodes up to about 8 mm. long, the lowermost pair of bracts subulate, 4 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide at base, carinate and conduplicate, sparingly hirtellous, the hairs ascending, rigid, about 0.16 mm. long, the cystoliths numerous and conspicuous, the upper bracts subulate or narrowly triangular, about 1.5 to 2.5 mm. long, narrowed from base to a slender tip, carinate, sparingly hirtellous and covered with cystoliths; bractlets similar to the bracts, equaling them or slightly shorter; calyx segments narrowly linear, 8.5 mm. long, about 0.75 mm. wide, sparingly hirtellous, the hairs rigid and ascending, up to 0.2 mm. long, the cystoliths numerous, parallel and conspicuous; corolla white with the anterior lip spotted with violet (Pennell), 26 mm. long, rather densely hirtellous except at base, the hairs more or less spreading, up to 0.24 mm. long, rigid, the corolla tube narrow, 2 mm. broad at base, narrowed at 5 mm. above base to 1.5 mm., thence gradually enlarged to 2.5 mm. at mouth, the upper lip erect, oblong-ovate, 12 mm. long, 4 mm. wide at base, 0.75 mm. wide at tip, rounded, emarginate, the lower lip spreading or recurved, the inner surface papillose, oblong, 5 mm. wide, 3-lobed at tip, the lobes about 1 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide, rounded, the middle one cucullate; stamens exserted, equaling or slightly shorter than the corolla lips, the filaments glabrous, the anthers 3.5 mm. long, 0.5 mm. broad, dorsally hirsute, the cells superposed and vertically attached
to the connective, the cells slightly overlapping, the lower one short- caudate, the tail rounded at tip, about 0.32 mm. long; ovary hirtellous.
Type in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden, collected in forest of Boca Antizales, on the Río Esmeralda, Department of Bolívar, Colombia, 800 to 1,200 meters altitude, February 26, 1918, by Francis W. Pennell (No. 4500).
Justicia graphophylla bears a close relationship to J. phlebophylla and resembles it in many respects, especially in the large glabrous or nearly glabrous leaf blades, these densely covered by cystoliths. In J. phlebophylla, the rachis of the spike is heavy and the flowers secund; the rachis does not show any tendency to fragmentation as in J. graphophylla. The specific epithet is from the Greek Ypáów, engrave or draw, and 6XXov, leaf, in allusion to the design formed by the conspicuous cystoliths.