Terrestrial shrub ca. 1 m tall, but branches ± scrambling to 3 m long, glabrous throughout;  stem terete, striate, drying reddish-brown.  Leaves coriaceous, verticillate (3-5 leaves per node), ovate to lance-elliptic, 10-18 x 3.5-8 cm, base obtuse to rounded, apex long-acuminate;  7-9-plinerved, the inner nerves arising up to 4 cm above the base, midrib and lateral nerves impressed above and raised and conspicuous beneath, reticulate veinlets plane to slightly impressed above and plane to raised beneath;  petiole terete, rugose, 4-8 mm long.  Inflorescence axillary, solitary, racemose, up to ca. 25-flowered, entirely bathed in a translucent mucilage when in bud;  rachis bluntly angled, glabrous but fimbriate, to 8 cm long;  floral bract persistent, appressed, broadly imbricate (concealing the rachis, pedicel, and most of the flowers at anthesis), coriaceous, striate, ovate, obtuse, 13-18 x 10-13 mm, red to reddish-pink;  pedicel cylindric-obconic, bluntly angled, fimbriate, ca. 2(-4) mm long;  bracteoles basal, membranous, oblong-oblanceolate, rounded, mucronate, 5-6 mm long.  Flowers with calyx 10-12 mm long, frimbriate, red;  hypanthium ylindric, bluntly angled 4-5 mm long;  limb cylindric-campanulate, 6-8 mm long;  lobes oblong to narrowly ovate, acute, striate, 5-7 mm long, basally imbricate;  sinuses acute;  corolla cylindric-urceolate, broadest below the middle, bluntly angled, not conspicuously winged, ca. 11-12.5 x 6-7 mm when dry, lower 3/4 red, upper 1/4 pale yellowish-green, the lobes triangular, acute, ca. 1 mm long, pink to white;  stamen 10, equal, ca. 8 mm long;  filaments distinct, ca. 4 mm long, glandular-fimbriate dorsally at the connectives;  anthers ca. 5.5 mm long;  thecae ca. 4 mm long;  tubules ca. 1.5 mm long;  style 11-12 mm long.  Fruit not seen.

     Distribution.  Endemic to Ecuador;  premontane to montane cloud forest at 1200-2400 m altitude.  Rare and endangered.