Plants 30-50 cm tall. Pseudobulbs tuberous, irregularly ellipsoid to triangular-ovoid, borne on a very short rhizome and forming dense clusters, 1.5-2 cm in diam., few noded, usually partially covered in fibrous sheaths. Leaves 2 or 3, well developed at anthesis, lustrous, elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or oblong-lanceolate, 15-35 × (2-)3-9 cm, papery, apex acuminate or acute; petiole-like stalk enclosed in several sheaths and forming a pseudostem to ca. 25 cm. Inflorescence (10-)30-40 cm, usually as tall as or taller than leaves; peduncle with 3-5 widely spaced sheaths; sheaths tubular, 4-6.5 cm, membranous; rachis pendulous, 2.5-6 cm, densely (2-)5-15-flowered; floral bracts linear-lanceolate, 5-9 × ca. 2.5 mm, apex acute to acuminate. Flowers not opening widely, white to pinkish, lip with a central yellow callus and crimson-purple venation and streaks; pedicel and ovary 7-8 mm. Sepals oblong, 10-12 × 3-4 mm, apex acute; lateral sepals somewhat oblique. Petals subobovate-oblong, 10-12 × 4-5 mm, apex acute or mucronate; lip broadly ovate-oblong, 10-11 × 9-10 mm, shallowly saccate at base, unlobed, lateral margins erect, apex subtruncate and slightly emarginate or retuse; disk with a central callus composed of a cluster of irregular, fleshy wartlike projections or a pair of short, fleshy longitudinal ridges. Column 3-5 mm, with a short column foot. Capsule oblong, 3.5-5 × ca. 1.5 cm. Fl. Jun-Jul. 2n = 36, 52, 54.
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Pseudobulbs 30–50 × 20–30 mm, crowded, often yellowish. Leaves 3–5 on slender stem to 80 mm long, 250–350 × 60–80 mm, dark green to yellowish, plicate. Flower stem 200–300 mm tall, erect in bud, nodding in flower, erect for seed dispersal, 8–20-flowered. Flowers usually pale pink, sometimes white, c. 20 mm across, bell-shaped to tubular. Dorsal sepal 12–15 × 3.5–4 mm. Lateral sepals 12–15 × 4 mm, boat-shaped. Petals oblong, 13–16 × 4–5 mm, blunt. Labellum 13–15 × 10–12 mm, pink with dark red veins, obscurely 3-lobed; lateral lobes obliquely erect; midlobe concave, shallowly notched.
An orchid that has a fleshy rhizome. It has round false bulbs and several broad leaves. There are 3-5 leaves at the top of a short stem, the top leaf is the largest. The leaves are oval and 10-35 cm by 3-9 cm wide. They are pleated along their length. The leaf stalk is 15 cm long. The flowering stalk has 8-10 pink flowers. It becomes bent over by the time the flowers are mature. The fruit are capsules 2-5 cm long. They are oval and have ribs along them.
Widespread and common in an extensive range of moist habitats including rainforest, monsoonal thickets, open forest, woodland, heathland and grassland, usually growing in freely draining soil, sometimes in seasonally wet or swampy areas; also found in sites of litter accumulation and colonising tracks, embankments and roadsides.
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It is a tropical plant. It grows on lighter soils including sand. In southern China it grows along stream sides and on grassy slopes between 300-2,400 m above sea level.
Dense forest, thickets, and clearings, on grassy slopes, and in pockets of soil on limestone at elevations from near sea level to 450 metres in Fiji.
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