Terrestrial herb with separate fertile and sterile shoots.Sterile shoots 2–3-leaved; leaves up to 22 × 1 cm, linear, acute, erect.Fertile shoots 40–60 cm tall; cauline leaves imbricate, 4–8 cm long and 12–18 mm wide, sheathing, apices free; basal leaves reduced to sheaths.Inflorescence lax, 8–16 cm long, 2–8-flowered.Floral bracts 5–7 cm long, lanceolate, long-acuminate, the apical part rolled, overtopping the flowers.Flowers red, pink or scarlet, the galea with darker spots.Dorsal sepal spathulate; claw 16–17 × 3–4 mm, erect, canaliculate; blade 13–20 mm long, ovate, subcordate, obtuse, galea c. 8 mm deep, curved forwards.Spur pendent from a ridge below the middle of the dorsal sepal, 13–16 mm long, filiform to rarely subclavate.Lateral sepals 21–36 mm long, obliquely oblong, subobtuse to acute.Petals 2-lobed; anterior lobe 9–15 mm tall, ovate, flanking the anther, spreading, the margins incurved; posterior lobes 22–30 mm long, linear, parallel at the base, then diverging through an S-curve.Lip pendent, 14–22 mm long, linear.Anther erect, 6–9mm tall; connective longer than the cells.Stigma 3–4 mm in diameter.Ovary c. 2 cm long.