Plants 8-26 cm. Roots from cylindric tuberoids, 30-60 × 8-10 mm. Stems green, often tinged with brown or purplish, unbranched or rarely 2-3-branched from base. Leaves 3-10, ascending, usually partially sheathing stem; blade green, often tinged with brown or purple, bractlike, ovate, 1-1.8 × 0.5-1 cm, margins entire. Inflorescences 3-10(-15)-flowered corymbose racemes. Flowers not resupinate, erect, closed to slightly gaping, pale green, sometimes tinged with brown or reddish brown; flowering successive, anthesis overlapping; dorsal sepal linear-lanceolate, 6-11 × 2-2.5 mm; lateral sepals linear-lanceolate, falcate, 6-11 × 2-2.5 mm; petals linear-lanceolate, falcate, 8-11 × 1-2 mm; lip facing stem, white to pale green, ovate to obovate, clawed, 3-lobed, 8-10 × 3-4 mm, middle lobe ovate, lateral lobes lance-ovate, margins erose to nearly lacerate; disc with 3 green, raised, denticulate crests; column yellowish white, clavate, slender, 7 mm; pollinia 2, yellow. Capsules erect, ellipsoid, 10-20 × 5-10 mm.

Flowering summer. Sandy pinelands in shade or full sun, persisting in sandy lawns, or rarely in shade of live- oak hammocks; 0--10 m; Fla.; se Mexico; West Indies (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti); Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama); South America (Ecuador, Venezuela).

The flowers are presumed to be self-fertilizing. The anther color has been reported as purple for Venezuelan material (G. C. K. Dunsterville and L. A. Garay [1959]-1976, vol. 3).