Plants 40--80 cm tall. Rhizomes many branched, yellow inside, fleshy; roots bearing tubers. Leaf sheath pale green; petiole 5--8 cm; leaf blade green with purple, narrow band along red midvein, lanceolate to broadly so, ca. 20 × 5--7 cm, glabrous, base cuneate, apex caudate. Inflorescences terminal on pseudostems; peduncle ca. 3.6 cm; spike cylindric, ca. 9 × 2.5 cm; fertile bracts ovate-elliptic; coma bracts white with purple apex, oblong, ca. 4.2 × 1 cm, glabrous. Calyx ca. 1.3 cm, apex 2-toothed. Corolla pale purple; tube ca. 1.4 cm, villous at throat; lobes yellow, elliptic, ca. 1.5 cm. Lateral staminodes yellow, obovate, ca. 1 cm × 5 mm. Labellum suborbicular, ca. 1.2 × 1.1 cm, apex yellow with deeply colored center, emarginate. Ovary pilose. Capsule subglobose. Fl. Aug--Oct.