Plants 18-50 cm. Leaves persistent, petiolate; blade narrowly to broadly elliptic, prominently and irregularly plicate, 10-20 × 3-8 cm, abaxially usually maroon or greenish purple, adaxially dark green with whitish veins. Inflorescences: floral bracts inconspicuous, 3-7 × 1.5 mm, apex subulate to acuminate. Flowers prominent but inconspicuously colored; sepals spreading, greenish or yellowish suffused with magenta or purple-brown, oblong-oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 10-15 × 1.8-4 mm; petals parallel to column, greenish or yellowish, suffused with magenta or purple-brown, oblong-oblanceolate, 9-13 × 1.8-3.5 mm; lip white with magenta spots, obovate in outline, 9-12 × 7-9 mm, apex 3-lobed, lateral lobes ascending and flanking column, middle lobe broadly expanded, crenate; column 7 × 2 mm. Capsules ellipsoid, strongly ribbed, 15-30 × 7-12 mm. Flowering late spring. Moist, deciduous, upland to swampy forests; 0--1200 m; Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.