Descripción: Árbol o arbusto de 1 a 5 m de alto. Tronco ramificado a baja altura. Ramitas terminales con pelos hirsutos o erectos. Hojas simples y opuestas, de 10-35 x 3-9 cm, oblanceoladas, con ápice acuminado, bordes enteros y base decurrente. Pecíolo de 1-2 cm de largo. Inflorescencias en espigas con brácteas numerosas y sobrepuestas. Flores tubulares rosadas, rojas o anaranjadas. Corola bilabiada. Frutos en cápsulas, de 2-2.8 cm de largo, cubiertos de pelos en el exterior y dehiscentes en dos valvas al madurar.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas y medianas elevaciones, en bosques húmedos o muy húmedos. En Panamá se encuentra en las provincias de Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, Coclé, Colón, Darién, Panamá y la comarca de Guna Yala. Común en pendientes, hondonadas, orillas de riachuelos y caminos. Florece y fructifica de diciembre a mayo. Las flores son visitadas por colibríes.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con otras especies de Aphelandra, pero A. sinclairiana se caracteriza por la presencia de pelos hirsutos en las ramitas terminales. Plantas de la familia Rubiaceae son muy parecidas con Aphelandra, pero las Rubiaceae presentan estípulas y no tienen las flores con la corola bilabiada.

Usos: Se emplea como planta ornamental por el hermoso color de sus flores.

Shrub, 1.5-3.5 (6) m tall; stems densely pubescent with erect trichomes. Leaves thin; petioles and midribs below with pubescence like stem; blades oblanceolate, acuminate, gradually tapered and decurrent onto petiole nearly to base, 10-38 cm long, 3.5-9.5 cm wide, glabrate above except on major veins, densely pubescent below. Inflorescences terminal, densely fine-pubescent, the spikes few to several, densely bracteate, to 13 (20) cm long, the bracts +/- obovate, acute or abruptly acuminate, l-2 cm long, red-orange; sepals 5, acute, subtended by 2 similar bracts; corolla tubular, 6-7 cm long, magenta, bilabiate, the upper lip 4-lobed, the lateral lobes very short, the lower lip entire, reflexed; stamens 4, stiffly erect, somewhat enfolded in and almost equaling upper lip; anthers open at anthesis, held together, with densely pubescent lateral margins; filaments fused to tube near base; style slender, equaling and held between fused stamens; stigma cupular, bilabiate, open at anthesis; nectary not obvious but with the nectar accumulating at base of corolla tube. Capsules 2-valved, puberulent, ca 2.5 cm long; seeds disk-shaped, ca 4 mm long, suspended on a long, recurved retinaculum. Croat 7760. Occasional, in the forest. Flowers usually continuously throughout the dry season (December to April); the flowers appear in succession, usually only a single one at a time from each spike, opening in the morning and usually falling off or wilting before the day is out. The fruits develop quickly, and the lower bracts usually contain mature capsules by the middle of the dry season. Though plants continue to flower in the late dry season (even rarely into the rainy season), the spikes are usually heavy with mature capsules. No doubt hummingbird pollinated. Costa Rica and Panama. In Panama, known from tropical wet forest in Bocas del Toro (Quebrada Huron), Colon (Rio Buenaventura), Coclé (above El Valle), and Panama (southwest of Cerro Brewster), but perhaps more abundantly from tropical moist forest on both slopes of the Canal Zone.