Aphelandra kingii D. C. Wassh.

Aphelandra kingii Wasshausen

Aphelandra kingii Wasshausen, Phytologia 25:481. 1973.

Small, suffrutescent shrub, about 0.5 m high; stem 7 mm in diameter at base, glabrous below, upwardly becoming densely strigose; leaf blades elliptic to oblong, 13–16 cm long, 5–7 cm wide, abruptly acuminate at tip, narrowed at base to a short petiole 5 mm long, entire, sparingly strigose above, the lower surface densely strigose, the hairs about 2 mm long, the costa and lateral veins (about 7–9 pairs) rather prominent, more so than above; flowers borne in a sessile, terminal oblong-ovate spike about 7 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, the rachis glabrous; bracts imbricate, rhombic-ovate, 20–21 mm long, 15 mm wide, acute at apex, the tip itself a small mucro, cuneate at base, green, coriaceous, entire, striate-veined, bordered by a narrow subhyaline margin about 0.5 mm wide; bractlets subulate, 12 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, glabrous, each ending in a minute spine; calyx segments 8–9 mm long, glabrous, striate-veined, the posterior segment subulate, 2 mm wide, acuminate at apex, occasionally bearing a pair of minute teeth near the tip, the anterior pair subulate, 1.5 mm wide, acuminate at apex, the lateral pair conduplicate; corolla wanting; capsule oblong, 1.5 cm long, 5 mm wide, drying light brown, glabrous, apiculate at tip; seeds dark brown, 4 mm in diameter, muricate.

TYPE.—King & Guevara 6136 (holotype US), Colombia, Putumayo, 40 km NW of Puerto Asis, 300 m alt, 31 Jul 1965.

DISTRIBUTION.—Known only from the typelocality.

Aphelandra kingii is closely related to A. boyacensis Leonard, but the bracts, bractlets, and calyx segments of that relative are considerably longer and wider.