Description from
Flora of China
Cymbidium aphyllum Ames & Schlechter (1919), not (Roxburgh) Swartz (1799); C. szechuanense S. Y. Hu; Pachyrhizanthe aphyllum (Ames & Schlechter) Nakai; P. macrorhizon (Lindley) Nakai.
Plants terrestrial, mycotrophic, lacking green leaves and pseudobulbs. Rhizome subterranean, white, ascending or suberect, 5-10 × 0.3-0.7 cm, fleshy, often branched, several noded, slightly papillate, with 1 or 2 short roots to 1 cm. Inflorescence usually arising from apex of rhizome, erect, 11-18 cm or longer; peduncle usually purplish red or cream-yellow tinged purplish red at base, green above, with several sheaths 1-2.5 cm; rachis 2-5-flowered; floral bracts linear-lanceolate, 6-11 mm. Flowers 3-4 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 20-25 mm; sepals and petals white or yellowish with a purplish red longitudinal line; lip white or yellowish with purplish red markings. Sepals narrowly obovate-oblong, 20-22 × 4-5 mm, apex acute. Petals narrowly elliptic, 15-18 × 5-6 mm, apex acute; lip subovate, 13-16 mm, not fused to basal margins of column, slightly 3-lobed; lateral lobes erect; mid-lobe slightly recurved, triangular-ovate, 5-7 × 4-6 mm; disk papillate, with 2 longitudinal lamellae extending from base of lip to base of mid-lobe; lamellae convergent at their apices and forming a short tube. Column slightly arcuate, ca. 10 mm, narrowly winged; pollinia 4, in 2 pairs, broadly ovoid. Capsule erect, green. Fl. Jun-Aug. 2n = 38.
Forests along riversides, forest margins, open grassy slopes; 700-1500 m. Chongqing, SW Guizhou, SW Sichuan, NE Yunnan [N India, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand].