Erect, epiphytic herbs with approximate, suborbicular, ovoid, or elliptic-oblong, compressed, monophyllous pseudobulbs 2.5-9 cm. tall and 0.8-3 cm. wide, usually conspicuously ridged and wrinkled, often spotted or suffused with dark brown or black, the lower portions enveloped in the conduplicate, distichously imbricating bases of several bracts, the uppermost 2-4 of which are conspicuously foliaceous, the plants very variable in size, 1-4.5 dm. tall. Leaves and bract blades elliptic-oblong, ligular or sometimes narrowly linear, subacute, coriaceous, 10-35 cm. long and 0.8-3.5 cm. wide, contracted below into slender conduplicate petioles. Inflorescences usually solitary, erect or arching, many-flowered panicles apparently always exceeding the leaves, in robust plants up to 1.5 m. in length, although often much less, in our specimens averaging about 4.5-6 dm. long. Flowers very variable in size, 1.5-3.5 cm. long and 1-2.5 cm. wide. Sepals subequal, free, spreading, obovate-spatulate, obtuse or truncate, golden yellow with chestnut-brown blotches at the base, 6-14 mm. long and 2.5-5 mm. wide. Petals usually broader than the sepals, obovate-spatulate, obtuse or truncate, golden yellow with basal chestnut-brown blotches, 6-12 mm. long and 3-6 mm. wide. Lip pandurate, 3-lobed, 10-20 mm. long and 8-20 mm. wide, golden yellow with a U-shaped reddish brown blotch surrounding the yellow basal callus, the lateral lobes subquadrate, obliquely triangular or rounded, the basal 2/5 of the lip roughly triangular to suborbicular, the central portion of the lip abruptly contracted into a short, narrow isthmus, the mid-lobe dilated, spreading, 2-lobed with a deep central sinus, often transversely reniform in outline, the disk with an erect, fleshy basal crest, sometimes 5 (or more)-lobulate with 3 distinct apical teeth, or obscurely lobulate with only 2 distinct apical lobes. Column 3-4 mm. long, with prominent, usually porrect, lateral wings, the apices often more or less converging over the anther.
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