Plants 10-60 cm. Stem densely leafy throughout. Leaves alternate, ± distichous, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, rarely ± ovate (Toppin 357 from Chitral: 5.5x1.2-3 cm), spreading. Inflorescence 1-many-flowered. Lower bracts leafy, up to 10 cm long, diminishing rapidly in size, uppermost tiny, 2-5 mm long. Flowers pure white, about 10-14 mm long. Perianth segments connivent. Sepals lanceolate, up to 16(-18) mm long, petals somewhat smaller, obtuse. Labellum distinctly divided into a concave hypochile with oblique-oblong side-lobes and a transverse-oval, obtuse, papillose epichile, the former with orange-yellow patch at base, the latter with 4-6 orange-yellow, parallel crests. Column slender, 7-8 mm long. Ovary cylindric, glabrous, sessile; ripe seed-capsule elongated, erect.

Fl. Per.: May-July. Flowering before the monsoon rains.

Type: “Habitat in Europe asparis” (HB. Linn. 1057/4, photo!).

Distribution: Eurosibirian element. Northern hemisphere, Himalaya eastwards to Bhutan, S.E.-Tibet, Burma. In eastern Himalaya up to 3200 m.