Epiphyte (or elsewhere semiterrestrial ), to 40 cm tall; pseudobulbs fusiform to cylindrical, usually narrowed toward base, 15-30 cm long, usually 2-leaved from apex, enveloped by leafy bracts at base. Leaves conduplicate, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, coriaceous, 10-15 cm long, 3.5-5.5 cm wide. Inflorescences simple, terminal, few-flowered, erect racemes subtended by spathaceous bracts; flowers large and showy, both the sepals and petals 3-5 cm long, orchid-lavender, the petals broader; lip sessile, very deep orchid-lavender, folded along the edges forming a tube around the column 3-4.5 cm long. Fruits 5-7 cm long, narrowly tapered on both ends, not prominently ridged. Costa Rica to Colombia and Venezuela; Trinidad. In Panama, range uncertain; known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Los Santos, and Darien and from premontane moist forest in Panama (around Bejuco).