Erect or straggling suffruticose perennial, often with a decumbent base; culms slender or stout, up to 3m high. Leaf-blades 6-20cm long, 3-6(-12)mm wide, often conspicuously narrowed at the base. Inflorescence 5-12cm long; racemes with 2-6 sessile spikelets, rarely reduced to a triad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicelled spikelets. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 1.8-2.5(-3)mm long, scabrid or pubescent, blunt; lower glume concave or flat on the back, with 2-4 intercarinal nerves; awn 6-12mm long. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 3-4.5mm long.

Type: Java, Zollinger 859.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); India, Burma and Thailand to China and Japan; Java.

Capillipedium assimile is usually easily distinguished from Capillipedium parviflorurn by its suffruticose habit, very unequal spikelets and its tendency to bear the spikelets in short racemes rather than in triads, but introgression between the two species does occur at the tetraploid level.