Leaf 100–300 × 6–12 mm, leathery, dark green, base purplish. Flower stem 150–500 × 2–3.5 mm, 1–8-flowered. Sterile bracts usually 2. Flowers 30–40 mm across (rarely as small as 15 mm across), interior blue to purplish blue or pink with darker longitudinal veins, exterior dusky purple. Sepals and petals 8–18 × 4–10 mm, labellum widest. Column 5–6.5 × 2.5–4 mm, broadly winged, white or pale blue with brown or bluish apical collar; post-anther lobe short, slightly hooding anther, 1–2.5 × 1.5–2.8 mm, reddish brown to black with yellow apex, dorsal surface rough or bumpy with wart-like knobs; column arms parallel, projecting forwards, more or less parallel, white or yellow, 1.5–2.5 mm long, irregularly and deeply lobed. Anther near column apex.
Locally common in moist to wet sites in heathy forest, heathland and on swamp margins, growing in peaty soil; also colonises roadsides and other disturbed sites.
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