Plants ca. 1 m tall. Leaves 2 or 3; leaf sheath glabrous, roughly striate and reticulate; ligule 2-lobed, ca. 1.2 cm, fragile; petiole 7--25 cm; leaf blade oblong or lanceolate, 20--40 × 7--15 cm, glabrous, base attenuate, apex acuminate. Spikes ca. 3 cm in diam.; peduncle ca. 7 cm, scalelike sheaths imbricate, ca. 1.2 cm; bracts lanceolate, ca. 1.4 cm × 5--7 mm, whitish pubescent, 2-flowered; bracteoles enclosing calyx, tubular, pubescent. Flowers white. Calyx 3-toothed at apex. Corolla tube glabrous; lobes lanceolate. Lateral staminodes conical, very small. Labellum slightly 3-lobed, 2.5--3 × 1.7--2.5 cm, base contracted into claw, middle lobe emarginate at apex. Anther 7--8 mm; connective appendage entire or equally 3-lobed. Ovary cylindric, villous, 9-ribbed. Capsule globose, ca. 1.3 mm in diam., 9-ribbed. Fr. May. 2 n = 48*.