Usually terrestrial, sometimes epiphytic. Stems to 40 cm long; internodes short, 1–2 cm diam; cataphylls 5–10 cm long, drying fibrous, reddish brown, and promptly deciduous or persisting intact at upper nodes with bases of fibers persisting lower down. Leaves commonly erect; petioles 10–50 cm long 3–6 mm diam, subterete, C-shaped and narrowly flattened to narrowly or lightly sulcate, sheathed 1.5–2.5 cm; geniculum 7–17 mm long, paler green or light purple, sulcate. Blades triangular-ovate to ovate -elliptic or sometimes oblong narrowly oblong-elliptic, (18)24–57 cm long, (7)8–26 cm wide ((2)2.2–2.6(4.5) times longer than wide), moderately thin, narrowly acuminate to caudate acuminate at apex, broadly obtuse to truncate, rarely subcordate at base, dark green and semiglossy above, paler and semiglossy to matte below; midrib convex and concolorous, drying sometimes bluntly acute above, round-raised, paler, sometimes purplish or light brown below, sometimes weakly striate; primary lateral veins 8–14 per side, arising at 40–50 degree angle, narrowly sunken and somewhat quilted, drying weakly raised above, convex to narrowly raised and somewhat pleated-raised below; interprimary veins often present, coursing somewhat irregularly to the collective; secondary and tertiary veins scarcely visible or sometimes with a few tertiary veins somewhat raised below; collective veins arising from the uppermost basal veins or sometimes from one of the lower primary lateral veins, 4–10 mm from the margin; antimarginal veins present. Inflorescence erect; peduncle 16–50 cm long, 2–3 mm diam., subterete, lightly sulcate, equaling or shorter than petioles. Spathe lanceolate, membranaceous, green, lanceolate, drying yellowish, 7–15 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, inserted at an angle or 45 degrees, spreading or erect-spreading, acuminate or cuspidate at apex, the margins meeting at an angle of 40 degrees at base. Spadix 5.5–14 cm long, 3–5 mm diam, weakly curved, semiglossy, yellowish and sometimes green-tipped, becoming yellow to golden-yellow or orangish at anthesis, stipitate 2–4 mm; flowers ca. 3 visible per spiral, transversely rhombic to about as broad as long, 4.8–4.5 mm wide; tepals 1.8–1.9 mm wide, granular, inner margins straight to weakly concave; stamens 0.5–0.8 mm long, held at the surface of the tepals; anthers yellowish; stigma discoidal. Infructescence purplish, to 19 cm long, often recurved, tepals often scurfy brown at apex; berries early emergent, turbinate, clavate to obovoid, purple or white, variegated with violet-purple, sometimes purple with yellow-green longitudinal stripes, maturing from the base of the spadix and remaining firm apparently until very mature, often not developing fruits near the apex; pericarp thick, mesocarp mucilaginous, transparent; seeds 2, somewhat discoidal, 5.0–5.6 mm diam.

Type: Ecuador. Pichincha: Reserva ENDESA, 8 km N of Km 113 on Quito-Puerto Quito Highway; ca.700 m, 0°05'N, 79°02'W, 15 July 1986, Croat & Rodríguez 61505 (holotype, MO-3422195; isotypes, AAU, B, K, NY, QCA, US).

Los Ríos: Caserío Palmar de Bimbe, E of Santo Domingo-Quevedo Hwy, 10.5 km N of Patricia Pilar, 550--575 m, 0°35'S, 79°12'30"W, Croat 57001 (MO). Imbabura: Lita, 600 m, Cobb 27A (MO, U); 850 m, 0°21.36'N, 79°42.4'W, Palacios, Clark & Jaramillo 13621 (F, MO, QCNE); : 400--600 m, 0°21'N, 79°44'W, Bass & Pitman 223 (CM, MO, QCNE). Pichincha: 800 m, 0°05'N, 79°02'W, Arguello & Betancourt 327; Ayala 23 (QCA); Balslev & Balseca 4774, 4769 (NY); Croat 73157 (MO), 73163 (MO); Croat & Rodríguez 61485, 61505 (MO, QCA); Grayum et al. 9343 (MO); Jaramillo s.n. (QCA), 6354 (QCA), 6468 (MO, QCA), 6544 (QCA), 6698 (MO, QCA), 6716 (QCA); Jaramillo et al. 5235 (QCA); Rodríguez 180 (MO, QCA), 185 (MO), 191 (MO, QCA), 275 (K, QCA), 351, 385 (QCA). Cañar: Azuay, 600--1100 m, 02°33'S, 79°20'W, Yanez & Foster 210 (QCA). Loja: Loja-Zamora, km 16--24, 2600--2800 m, Jaramillo & Winnerskjold 5787 (QCA). Zamora-Chinchipe: 100 m, 04°20'S, 78°40'W, Palacios 6650 (MO).