Shrub about 1 meter high; stems quadrangular, glabrous or, near the tips, sparingly and bifariously tomentose, the hairs up to about 1 mm. long; leaf blades oblong-elliptic or oblong-obovate, up to 23 cm. long and 10 cm. wide, subacute at both ends, firm, entire or undulate, glabrous or the younger leaves sparingly hirtellous beneath, the costa and lateral veins (usually 8 pairs) prominent but more so beneath than above, the veinlets coarsely reticulate, the cystoliths obscure; petioles 5 mm. long, 2.5 mm. thick, glabrous; flowers borne in spikes up to 5 cm. long and up to 8 mm. broad, these forming an open ter- minal panicle up to 17 cm. long and 10 cm. broad, the lowermost internodes of the panicle up to 8 cm. long, the peduncles of the spikes up to 2.5 cm. long, both the peduncles and the internodes of the panicle quadrangular and glabrous or sparingly hirtellous, the nodes of the panicle bearing a pair of small leaves (their blades about 1.5 cm. long and 8 mm. wide); bracts subtending the flowers triangular, 3.5 mm. long and 2 mm. wide at base, acute (the tip itself blunt), firm, sparingly hirtellous and ciliate, the hairs rigid, mostly straight, up to 0.16 mm. long or the marginal hairs somewhat longer, ascending to subap- pressed, the 3 nerves thick and broad but not conspicuous; bractlets narrowly triangular, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide at base, subacute and carinate, sparingly hirtellous and ciliate; calyx 9 mm. long, sparingly hirtellous, the segments lanceolate, 6 mm. long, 1 mm. wide near base, gradually narrowed upwardly to a slender acute tip, ciliolate, the hairs straight or slightly curved, up to 0.16 mm. long; corolla 19 mm. long, purplish, hirtellous, the hairs rigid, mostly straight, spreading or
retrorse, up to 0.13 mm. long, the corolla tube 11 mm. long, 2.25 mm. broad near the base, 3 mm. broad at throat, the upper lip erect, oblong, 8 mm. long, 3 mm. wide at base, the tip 1 mm. wide, emar- ginate, the lower lip somewhat spreading or ascending, cuneate, 9 mm. long, 5 mm. wide at base of the 3 lobes, these oblong-ovate, about 4 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, rounded; stamens exserted 6 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla, the filaments glabrous toward tip, hirtellous toward base, the anthers 2 mm. long, 0.75 mm. broad, the lobes superposed, vertically attached to the connective, the lower cell tailed, the tail about 1 mm. long, bent vertically to the axis of the lobe; style exserted about 2 mm. beyond the mouth of the corolla tube, hirtellous, the stigma minutely bilobed; ovary hirtellous toward tip; capsules not seen.
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1661616, collected in swamp-forest at Puerto Araujo, on the Río Carare, Department of Santander, Colombia, 100 to 700 meters altitude, June 6, 1935, by Oscar Haught (No. 1754).
Haught's No. 2186, a shrub 1 meter high with red-purple flowers collected in flood-plain forest at Raizudo, Department of Santander, about 200 meters altitude, April 28, 1937, also represents the species.
Justicia helonoma has no close relatives among the species treated in this paper. The large, more or less succulent, glabrous leaf blades and narrow panicled spikes of purplish flowers should serve as char- acters by which it can be readily recognized. The specific epithet is from the Greek word oróuos, alluding to the swampy habitat.