Leaf 150–300 × 15–25 mm, leathery, dark green, base reddish to brown. Flower stem 150–700 × 2–6 mm, 3–20-flowered. Sterile bracts usually 2. Flowers 20–30 mm across, pale blue to dark blue, purple or pinkish, rarely whitish, sometimes sepals lighter coloured. Sepals and petals 9–15 × 5–6 mm, concave. Column 3–5 × 2–2.5 mm, white, pink or pale blue; post-anther lobe very short, not hooded, usually yellowish, irregularly warty or bluntly toothed, with fringed lobes 1–1.5 mm long; column arms 1.5–2 mm long, erect; hair-tufts more or less brush-like, dense, yellowish, hairs 1–2 mm long (occasionally a third, much sparser tuft erect in front of column).
Widespread, but disjunct, from the coast to mountains, sometimes locally common; found growing in a range of moist to wet or swampy habitats, including button grass moorland, sphagnum mounds, snow gum forests, heathland, wet flats, seepage areas and drainage lines, (sometimes in standing water) mostly in high rainfall districts; frequently in cold areas at moderate to high elevation; often in shade and hidden among shrubs, tall sedges and other tussocks in dense vegetation in loam, clay and peat; also colonises disturbed sites and road embankments.
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