Low terrestrial shrub;  stem terete to subterete, bluntly angled, ribbed, nitid, glabrous;  twigs subterete, sharply to bluntly angled, ribbed, densely strigose with reddish-brown hairs to 1.3 mm long, glabrate.  Leaves subcoriaceous, broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate or ovate-subrotund, 4-5.5 x 3-4 mm, base rounded, apex bluntly acute, margin entire, thinner than lamina, glabrous but minutely glandular-fimbriate beneath;  apparently 3-plinerved from the base, midrib plane to slightly raised above, but all venation essentially obscure;  petiole subterete, sometimes flatttened above, ca. 0.6 mm long, strigose as twigs.  Inflorescence axillary, solitary, surrounded at the base by a series of few, ovate to oblong, glabrous bractlets to ca. 1 mm long;  floral bract oblong, rounded, ca. 2 mm long, glabrous;  pedicel subterete, ca. 0.3-0.4 mm long, glabrous;  bracteoles striate, oblong, rounded, ca. 3 mm long, at anthesis imbricate in lower half and enclosing all the calyx and lower half of the corolla, then after anthesis imbricate along entire length and forming a tube with only the style exserted.  Flowers 4-merous, with calyx ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous;  hypanthium obconic, ca. 0.8 mm long;  limb spreading, ca. 0.7 mm long;  lobes deltate, acute, ca. 0.6 mm long;  sinuses acute;  corolla narrowly cylindric, not inflated, ca. 3.7-4.3 mm long and 1.5 mm diam. when dry, white, glabrous, the lobes reflexed, deltate, bluntly acute, ca. 0.75-1 mm long;  stamen 8, ca. 4 mm long;  filaments ca. 2 mm long, weakly pilose;  anthers ca. 2.2 mm long;  thecae ca. 1 mm long;  tubules 2, distinct, ca. 1.2 mm long, dehiscing by clefts ca. 0.6 mm long;  style exserted, glabrous, ca. mm long.  Berry not seen.

    Distribution.  Endemic to Ecuador and known only from the type collection;  forest remnants along pasture edges, at ca. 1300 m altitude.  Rare and endangered.