Plant 6–18 in. high, glabrous. Leaves linear-filiform, often withered or burnt off at the time of flowering, leaving a tuft of their remains at the base of the stem. Flowering stem slender, with 6–12 membranous, distant, acuminate sheaths, lower about an inch long, upper smaller. Raceme laxly 1–7-flowered. Bracts shorter than the ovaries, 3–6 lin. long, 1 1/2–3 1/2 lin. broad, ovate, acute, terminated by a fine awn-like point. Flowers rather large, blue. Dorsal sepal erect, 7–9 lin. long, 4–5 lin. broad, helmet-shaped, with a stout, ascending, obtuse spur, 2 1/2 lin. long, 1–1 1/2 lin. thick. Lateral sepals spreading and deflexed, 6–9 lin. long, 2 1/2–4 lin. broad, oblong, obtuse, concave. Petals 4–5 lin. high, strongly curved forwards; base with a broad semicordate auricle, 1 1/2–2 lin. long, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. broad; middle part linear, 1/2– 2/3 lin. broad; apical part dilated to 1 1/2–2 lin. broad, somewhat hatchet-shaped, bifid or trifid, the two principal teeth being 3/4–1 1/2 lin. long, the third, when present, much shorter. Lip 6–9 lin. long, 3–4 lin. broad, oblong in outline; margins deeply cut into a fringe of simple linear-clavate or filiform-clavate processes. Anther horizontal, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. long, oblong. Rostellum trifid; middle lobe slightly folded between the anther-cells and emarginate at the apex.
