Plants 2-3 m. tall, glabrous throughout; leaves ovate-elliptic, acute to acum- inate, base broadly obtuse then abruptly and shortly decurrent to the sheath, 30-65 cm. long, 15-20 cm. broad; inflorescence divided once or twice from the base, bearing numerous pairs of rather long-pedicellate flowers; sepals 1.0-1.2 cm. long; ovary clavate, 0.8-0.9 cm. long; corolla 4.5-5.0 cm. long, the lobes oblong- elliptic, erect or nearly so, the tube shorter than the sepals, bright red to orange; staminodia oblong-oblanceolate, 6-8 cm. long, free nearly to the base, red; capsules broadly ellipsoid, about 5 cm. long, 2.0-2.5 cm. thick, densely spinose- muricate.
Panama to Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina, in moist highland forest.
