Plants (11-)20-70 cm tall. Tubers oblong-ellipsoid to ellipsoid, 2-5 × 0.5-1.5 cm. Stem with 1-3 membranous sheaths at base, 1-3-leaved. Leaves usually basal and subopposite, or sometimes cauline and widely spaced and alternate, broadly ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or lanceolate-oblong, 4-19 × 2-5.5(-8) cm, slightly fleshy, margin somewhat crisped, apex acute or acuminate. Peduncle 6-30 cm, slender to stout, with several large, foliaceous, tubular bracts, glabrous; rachis 4-20 cm, laxly 10- to subdensely more than 20-flowered; floral bracts reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, 8-35 × 4-10 mm. Flowers fragrant, widely spreading, whitish, pink, or pale purple, glabrous, hermaphroditic or with reduced stamen and functionally female; pedicel and ovary 6-10 mm, glabrous. Dorsal sepal narrowly oblong-elliptic, 4-6 × 1-1.8 mm, apex obtuse; lateral sepals oblong to subovate, slightly oblique, 4-6 × 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse. Petals narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, 3.5-5 × 1-1.2 mm, outer surface carinate, margin sometimes finely ciliate, apex acute to obtuse and sometimes incised; lip hooded, subglobose, 5-6 × 4-6 mm, outer surface carinate, 2-spurred, margin sometimes irregularly dentate, apex acute or obtuse and often deflexed; spurs parallel, slender and cylindric, to stout and conic, curving downward, 3-13 mm, or reduced and saclike, or rarely absent altogether. Column incurved, 4-5 mm.

Open forests, alpine slopes; 1000-4000 m. SW Guizhou, NW Hunan, SW and W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang, NW, S, and SE Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka].