Rosette leaves 6–10, narrowly elliptic, 10–30 x 5–10mm. Flower stem 150–45 tall, 1–1. across, 1–8-flowered. Sterile bracts 3–5. Flowers suberect to porrect, translucent white with leaden green to leaden brown or blackish bands, sometimes with chequered patterns. Dorsal sepal point 6–1 long, porrect to upcurved. Lateral sepals sometimes projecting partly forwards and not fully reflexed, about same width as hood, 11–14 x 9–12mm, flat to shallowly concave, margins flat, very sparsely hairy; free points curved forwards, 10–1 long, divergent. Petals with well developed flanges that close off base of hood, 10–14 x 3–3.5mm. Labellum elliptical, 4.5–5 x 1.8–2.2mm, shallowly concave, narrowed to base, blackish; basal lobe narrower and thicker with tuft of 8–12 prominent white bristles to 1. long; marginal bristles 16–20 to c. long.
Relatively widespread but localised, growing among low shrubs and Borya clumps in shallow soil in rock crevices and over rock plates on outcrops of granite; less commonly in open shrubland in well-drained gravelly loam.