Inflorescence racemose, rarely reduced to a solitary flower, light yellow to reddish, 5-30 cm high (from root connection), 1-10 mm diam. below lowermost flower, glabrous or variously pubescent;  floral bracts elliptic to ovate, 8-15 x 3-15 mm, margins erose, irregularly toothed;  pedicels slender, 2-20 mm long, elongating to 30 mm in fruit, 1-2 mm diam., finely pubescent to nearly glabrous, sometimes glandular;  bracteoles sometimes present, not consistently so even within populations, to 10 x 5 mm.  Flowers cylindric, often constricted distally;  calyx distinct from corolla, sepals 4-5 or occasionally absent, 7-12 x 1-5 mm, usually pubescent within;  corolla of 4-5 petals divergent at apices, 8-17 x 4-8 mm, oblong to oblanceolate, narrowly saccate at constricted base, rounded to acute at apices, usually reflexed at tip;  stamens 8-10 in two series of alternating lengths, 5-14 mm long;  anthers hippocrepiform, 0.8-1.5 mm long, each dehiscent by a single terminal slit over the connate sacs;  ovary 4-8 x 3-6 mm, usually pubescent, locules 4-5, nectary lobes short, stout, flanking filaments;  stigma umbilicate, 1.5-3 mm diam., often subtended by ring of stiff hairs;  style uniformly slender, joining abruptly with ovary, 2-10 x 1-2 mm.  Capsule 6-10 x 4-8 mm, perianth segments tending to be early deciduous in fruit, capsular segments often irregularly deciduous.  Chromosome numbers:  2n=16, 24, 32, 48.

     Distribution.  In the Neotropics, found in Mexico and Guatemala;  forests of Pinus, Abies, and Quercus at 1800-4000 m.  Flowering specimens have been collected in May-Feb, but are usually found Jun-Sep.