Erect shrub 1-1.5 m tall;  mature stems terete, glabrous to sparsely hispid-hirsute with basally swollen hairs to 3 mm long;  bark reddish-brown, thin, cracking in strips;  twigs subterete, weakly puberulent with white hairs (also hispid-hirsute with ± straight, ascending to spreading, basally swollen, eglandular hairs to 2.5 mm long);  buds spherical to oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm long, scales broadly ovate, ciliate.  Leaves coriaceous with blade surface flat (slightly concave), broadly ovate, oblong or suborbicular, (0.7-)1.5-2 x (-0.5)1-2 cm, base rounded and subcordate, apex acute to rounded and conspicuously terminating in a blunt mucro to 2 mm long, margin conspicuously and coarsely crenate-serrate with each tooth terminating in a deciduous setose hair, glabrous (with a few short, eglandular, setose hairs along midrib beneath);  midrib, lateral nerves (2-3 per side), and reticulate veinlets prominent and conspicuously raised on both surfaces;  petioles subterete, shallowly flattened above, 1-2 mm long, glabrous, reddish-brown.  Inflorescences clustered at branch tips, axillary, racemose, 10-20-flowered;  rachis subterete, bluntly angled, 3.5-6 cm long, surrounded at base by a series of ovate to oblong, striate, glabrous, ciliate bracts to 3 mm long, densely white puberulent (also weakly hirsute with straight to crisped, ferruginous, minutely gland-tipped hairs to 1.5 mm long);  pedicels subterete, thin, (4-)9-13 mm long, densely puberulent and also moderately hirsute with straight to crisped, ferruginous, minutely (and ± deciduously) gland-tipped hairs to 1.5 mm long;  bracteoles located near base, membranous, striate, ovate and long-acicular, ca. 3 x 1 mm, acuminate to ovate-acuminate, glabrous to weakly puberulent, ciliolate, marginally glandular-fimbriate;  floral bract membranaceous, striate, ovate to elliptic, (4-)5-6 x 3-4 mm long, acute, glabrous, ciliate, marginally glandular-fimbriate.  Flowers with calyx 3.5-6 mm long, lobes ovate, (3-)4-4.5 x (1.5-)2-2.2 mm, acuminate, glabrous or puberulent, ciliate;  corolla urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, apparently 5-angled, 5-8 x 4.5-5 mm, glabrous without but weakly short-pilose within, rose-red when fresh, lobes ovate, 1-2.5  mm long, obtuse;   stamens 3.5-4.5 mm long;  filaments (2.5-)3.5-4 mm long, moderately to densely short-pilose;  anthers 1-1.5 mm long, awns conspicuous;  ovary densely short-canescent;  style 3-4.3 mm long, short-pilose along entire length.  Fruiting calyx not seen.

     Distribution (Map).  Southern Ecuador and northern Peru, where it is found in páramo thickets, shrubby woodlands, and humid elfin forest at elevations of 3140-3700 m.  Flowering and fruiting apparently throughout the year.  Rare and probably endangered.