Caespitose epiphyte; pseudobulbs lacking or 5-10 mm long, usually ensheathed in papery bracts, bearing a single leaf. Leaves terete, longitudinally grooved, 24-70 cm long, to 1 cm wide, becoming pendent and usually reddish-brown in age. Panicles solitary, many-flowered, from base of pseudobulb, +/- equaling leaves; flowers variable in size, to 2.5 cm long; sepals and lateral petals subequal, clawed at base, yellow heavily marked with reddish brown; lip trilobate, fiddle-shaped, clawed, yellow, to 2 cm long, nearly as broad as long, the lateral lobes obovate-spatulate, with a short claw, separated from the broad bilobed middle lobe by a narrow isthmus; base of lip with a fleshy, toothed callus; column with lateral, fanlike wing. Fruits +/- ellipsoid, tapered toward apex, to 2.5 cm long, with flat ridges. Croat 8396. Occasional, along the margin of the lake, usually not in full sun. Flowers from January to April, especially in February and March. The fruits develop quickly and are dispersed usually by May (or as late as July). Known only from Panama, principally in tropical moist forest in central Canal Zone, Colón, and Panama; known also from premontane wet forest in Panama (Cerro Campana).