Deciduous terrestrial orchids, growing singly or in small groups, reproducing by seed and some species by local clonal increase. Leaf single, either basal and ground-hugging or held above ground on a slender stalk, ovate, glabrous or hairy, margins smooth or undulate. Racemes 1-to few-flowered; peduncle thin, glabrous or hairy, no sterile bracts. Flowers resupinate, facing out from scape, unusual shape, pale-coloured. Dorsal sepal free, smaller than lateral sepals, closely hooding column. Lateral sepals dominating flower, free, clawed at base, pale-coloured (often white), projected forwards or decurved beneath labellum. Petals thin, widened distally, erect or spreading. Labellum stiffly attached by its base to column base, but still flexible. Labellum lamina obscurely 3-lobed; basal part forming a narrow tube with front of column; lateral lobes small, narrow; midlobe recurved, broad, thick, fleshy, adorned with tufts of simple trichomes. Column slender, straight, hairy; stigma deeply concave with flexible margins. Anther with 8 pollinia in 2 unequal pairs, each pair with its own viscidium (hemiviscidium).
These orchids grow in open forest, woodland and heathland, mainly in freely-draining sites, sometimes in seasonally wet areas.
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