Leafless, terrestrial orchids with an erect, subterranean rootstock with spreading, thick, fleshy, brittle roots. Inflorescence racemose, multiflowered. Peduncle much longer than rachis, wiry or fleshy, pigmented. Flowers opening widely or not, dull-coloured. Sepals and petals free, slender, of similar shape and size, often not spreading widely. Labellum attached to anterior base of column. Labellum lamina usually larger than other tepals, consisting of a basal hypochil, to which is attached a 3-lobed, boat-shaped epichil (one Australian species has a simple unlobed labellum). Column long, slender, narrowly winged, without column foot.