Perennial herb; roots tuberous, 1-5, clustered, 0.2-1.4 cm in diameter; leaves deep blue-green, 1-2 (6), emerging prior to, or with, the inflorescence and fading shortly after anthesis (McVaugh [1985] observed leafless flowering plants bearing withered leaf remains near the base, whereas initial studies of our population indicate that flowering plants generally have a pair of basal leaves); petioles 2.5-7 cm long; blades 2.5-13.5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, narrowly lanceolate, acute; scapes slender and erect with 5-8 narrow, tubular sheathing bracts, 17-36 cm tall, glabrous below, glandular beneath and within spike; spike 5.5-15.5 cm long, somewhat twisted, 10-30-flowered; floral bracts 5-16 mm long, ovate-lanceolate to 4 mm wide, acute; flowers sessile, curving laterally from the spike, about 5 mm long above the ovary, the segments appressed; dorsal sepal triangular; lateral sepals lanceolate; petals linear-spatulate, curved and equal to the sepals; lip on distinct but short subauriculate claw adnate to the sepals, undivided 4-4.5 mm long, 1.6-2.5 mm wide, conduplicate, the tip obtuse, nearly straight, not much decurrent, the blade ovate to elliptic with a fleshy center and tongue-like apex, pubescent above; calluses 2, bright salmon-orange, extending two-thirds the length of the lip; gynostemium 3-4 mm long and relatively massive; rostellum low, transverse, sometimes notched. Flowers July and August.