Plants 20-35 cm tall, glabrous. Tuberoids ellipsoid, 2-3 cm long. Stems 3-4 cm tall above tuberoids. Leaf orbicular-cordate, 5-10 cm long, 5-8 cm wide, upper surface dark green, speckled with purple spots, lower surface purplish. Peduncle and rachis 15-30 cm long; bracts lanceolate, 6-15 mm long; pedicel and ovary 1.5-2.5 cm long. Flowers 4-10, often secund, purplish red; dorsal sepal oblong, 5-7 mm long, 3-3.5 mm wide, obtuse; lateral sepals widely spreading, obliquely elliptic, 6-8 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, acute; petals obliquely ovate, 6-7 mm long, 3 mm wide; lip spurred at base, limb variable in shape, 3-lobed or nearly undivided, ca. 7 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, lateral lobes small, triangular or rectangular, entire or apex and apical margins incised, middle lobe ovate or rectangular, 3-5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, entire or irregularly serrulate, apex truncate, microscopically hirsute along margins, disc minutely pubescent or nearly glabrous, spur trumpet-like, 13-17 mm long, pointing backward; column ca. 2.5 mm long; anther cells with base extending into grooves of rostellar arms; pollinia ovoid-globose, attached to large clavate caudicle, with small viscidium.

ILAN: Chungyangchienshan, Su 1186*. HSINCHU: Itsushan, Sasaki s. n. Jul 1932; Kuanwu, Fukuyama 3512. MIAOLI: Talu logging road, Wang & Yang 4863. TAICHUNG: Hsuehshan, Ying 3931. CHIAYI: Yushan, Jan & Kao s. n. Jul 1973. TAITUNG: Tsueyuenshan, Yamamoto & Mori 484.

The Himalaya, Tibet and southcentral China. Taiwan, alpine meadows, 2,500-3,500 m.

The shape of the lip of Hemipilia cordifolia is greatly variable in populations in Taiwan. The lateral lobes may be distinct, broad and rectangular, or triangular and directed outwards, or may even be obscure and the whole lip appearing undivided. Sometimes a lateral lobe is present on one side of the lip and obscure on the other side. Such variation can be observed in different flowers of the same plant. Similar variation has been reported from Nepal (Banerji & Pradhan 1984).