Rosette leaves 3–7, ovate, 5–15 x 4–10mm, dark green, shiny, margins entire. Flower stem 100–20 tall, wiry, 1–4-flowered. Flowers well spaced, 1–3 open at once, externally scabrous, 8–10 x 4–4.5mm, base green with prominent white patch, apex dark brown to blackish. Dorsal sepal of similar length to petals, both scabrous. Synsepalum bulging in side view, stepped in suddenly at top; frontal opening flat with central notch. Free points sharply tapered, c.3. long, just reaching top of hood. Labellum not visible through sinus in any position, elliptical, 3.3–3.7 x 1.4–1.6mm, dark brown to red-brown and white, broadly blunt.
Highly localised, growing in heath and heathy forest developed on sandstone in freely draining to moisture-retentive sand and sandy clay loam. The plants commonly grow in open sites, often on margins of sandstone outcrops or in shallow soil in rock fissures or over rock plates, less commonly in moss under tall shrubs.