Leaf partially developed at flowering; at maturity 300–400 × 6–8 mm, green, not pruinose. Flower stem 500–800 mm tall, thin, wiry, 4–12-flowered. Flowers lasting 1–2 days, 18–22 × 12–15 mm, sepals green, petals green with red-brown stripes and suffusions, labellum green with reddish markings and coarse, red labellum papillae. Dorsal sepal obliquely erect, 6–7 × 5–6 mm. Lateral sepals held close to labellum, 6–7 × 4 mm. Petals porrect to spreading, 6–6.5 × 3–4 mm. Labellum flat or shallowly concave in profile, 14–16 × 7–12 mm, fiddle-shaped in outline; basal part with 2 short, red plates and crowded papillae; central part densely covered with numerous coarse, stiff, curved papillae to 5 mm long; apical third naked, striped or blotched with red; margins with 2 or 3 pairs of narrow red teeth to 4 mm long. Column c. 4.5 × 3 mm, pale green.
Widespread, but disjunct and localised in wet habitats. Found growing in lowland swamps, along drainage lines and seasonally inundated flats in open forest, wet heathland and Melaleuca woodland in sand and clay-based soil.