Leaf 100–250 × 4–5 mm. Flower stem 200–500 × 3–6 mm, 2–15-flowered. Sterile bracts 2 or 3. Flowers bell-shaped, 15–20 mm across, light blue or purple (sometimes mauve or pink) with prominent, broad, dark blue, longitudinal veins. Sepals and petals 7–10 × 4–6 mm, concave; labellum as broad as petals. Column divided into 3 parts, 3.5–4 × 3 mm, dark blue to purplish with blackish crest and yellow tips; post-anther lobe not hooding anther, short, narrow, crested, with crowded, short, finger-like papillae; auxiliary lobes converging, obliquely erect, apex lobed, yellow; column arms spreading forwards to obliquely erect; hair-tufts dense, brush-like, hairs white or yellow. Anther near middle of column.
Widespread and common, but occurring mostly in coastal or near-coastal areas; found growing in freely draining, sandy soil in woodland and among low scrub.
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