Plant very variable in proportions, 3-7 dm. high. Leaves densely fasciculate, 3-10 dm. long; sheaths large, elliptic, forming an urceolate pseudobulb, purple or castaneous, densely brown-lepidote; blades ligulate, broadly obtuse and apiculate, not constricted at base, 6-10 cm. wide, coriaceous, densely pale-lepidote beneath, armed with coarse black teeth to 4 mm. long. Scape slender, erect or decurved, white-floccose. Scape-bracts imbricate, congested below the inflorescence, elliptic, acute, entire, red. Inflorescence a polystichous-flowered cylindric spike, fertile throughout, 5-25 cm. long, pale-floccose at first. Floral bracts small or sometimes wanting, entire. Flowers 22 mm. long. Sepals free, very asymmetric, mucronate, 5-10 mm. long. Petals acute, 12 mm. long, yellow, bearing 2 fimbriate scales. Ovary subglobose, the epigynous tube distinct. Ovules short-caudate, borne at the middle of the cell.
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