Leaf 100–180 × 4–8 mm. Flower stem 200–400 mm tall, 1-or 2-flowered. Flowers 100–130 mm across, with a strong, acrid odour, white, greyish white, cream or yellowish with pale red markings; sepals and petals with long, dark brown, filamentous tips. Dorsal sepal erect, 60–150 × 2.5–4 mm. Lateral sepals obliquely decurved then drooping, 60–150 × 3–6 mm. Petals similarly arranged, 50–140 × 2.5–4mm. Labellum 12–25 × 12–16 mm, base flared, cream with dark red, radiating lines breaking up into spots and blotches; margins with short blunt teeth; tip recurved. Calli anvil-shaped, cream, sometimes with red markings, 8–18 pairs in 2 or 4 rows. Column 12–14 × 5–7 mm, cream to pink.
Restricted to a narrow coastal band; growing in sheoak thickets, woodland, shrubland, and heath in freely draining sands, both acidic and limey.