Stenandrium nephoica (D. C. Wassh.) D. C. Wassh.

Aphelandra nephoica Wasshausen

Aphelandra nephoica Wasshausen, Phytologia 25:483. 1973.

Erect or decumbent herb to 50 cm high; stems terete, purplish, rather sparingly strigose; leaf blades oblong-elliptic, 8.5–11 cm long, 2.5–4 cm wide, short-acuminate at apex (the tip itself obtuse), long and narrowly decurrent on the petiole, firm, entire or shallowly undulate, the upper surface yellowish green, strigillose, especially the costa and lateral veins (8–11 pairs), the lower surface light green, glabrous or the costa and lateral veins inconspicuously appressed-puberulous; petioles 11.5 cm long, strigillose; flowers borne in 2, lax, axillary, peduncled spikes, these 3–4 cm long, the rachis strigose, the hairs spreading, the peduncles 9–13 cm long, sparingly strigose; bracts erect, scarcely imbricate, triangular, 2.5–3 mm long and 2 mm wide, acute, green, entire, carinate, the margins densely ciliate; bractlets lanceolate, 2.5 mm long and 1 mm wide, acuminate, striate-nerved, green, ciliate; calyx segments subequal, lanceolate, 4.5 mm long, thinly scarious, striate-nerved, acute to acuminate, glabrous and minutely ciliate, the posterior segment 1.5 mm wide, the anterior pair 1 mm wide, the lateral pair 0.5 mm wide; corolla mauve-pink, 1.8 cm long, glabrous, the tube erect, 1.4 cm long, 2 mm wide at base, narrowed to 1 mm at 3 mm above base, thence gradually enlarged to 2.5 mm at mouth, the lobes of the lower lip broadly rounded, broadly cuneate toward base, the middle one 5 mm long and 3 mm wide, the lateral ones slightly smaller, the upper pair much smaller (4 mm long and 2 mm wide); stamens included, subequal; filaments epipetalous above the middle of the corolla tube; anthers oblong, obtuse, their tips cohering; ovary 1.5 mm long; capsule not seen.

TYPE.—Grubb, Curry, & Fernandez 651 (holotype US), Colombia, Boyaca, Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, between Bachira and Bocota, 2250 m alt, 21 Aug 1957.

DISTRIBUTION.—In cloud forests, known only from the type-locality.

Aphelandra nephoica is closely related to A. arnoldii, but the bracts of that relative bear a few minute teeth and its leaf blades are considerably longer and wider.