Plants 10-20 cm tall, slender. Rhizome with few, hairy roots and stolons creeping in a layer of moss not entering the soil. Stem glandular-hairy, with ovate, shortly petioled, dark green, net-veined leaves near the base and some bract-like leaves above. Inflorescence narrow, often one-sided, ± densely many-flowered. Bracts lanceolate, ± equalling in length the ovary. Flowers small, white, almost at right angles with the ovary. Sepals ovate, white, tinged with some green, glandular-pubescent, 4-5 mm long, the dorsal forming a hood with the lanceolate petals, the laterals spreading. Labellum undivided, with bag-shaped base and tongue-shaped anterior half, about 4 mm long. Column broad, c. 2 mm long. Ovary subsessile, glandular-hairy.

Fl. Per.: End of July to September.

Type: “Hab. in Sueciae, Angliae, Sibiriae, Helvetiae silvis” (Hb. Linn. 1055/7, photo!).

Distribution: Northern hemisphere, S. W-Asia, Himalaya to Nepal-Bhutan, S. E. Tibet and Assam in mossy coniferous forests.