Plant: medium size to 20 cm tall. Leaves 15-20 cm x 10 mm, sometimes be quite bronze and tending to form a basal rosette or green and all cauline.

Flowers: medium sized, 25-30mm tall, of two quite different extreme forms; the uniting characters are a rather boxy galea and a broad dark green to black labellum coming to an abruptly pinched and twisted tip just beyond the galea. At one extreme the tepals are very short and the lateral sepals flat, curled and red tipped, and very flat from their junction to their base. the stigma distinctly heart-shaped. At the other extreme the lateral sepals are rolled and slightly taller than the galea and the stigma is oval to elongate.

Flowering: September to December.

Habitat: lowland to montane; grassland, open scrub and forest.

Conservation: often abundant, widespread; not threatened.

Notes: the species shows a lot of variation including hybrids are common with P. irsoniana and P. oliveri and suspected with P. banksii, P. cardiostigma and P. graminea.

Key features: flower medium sized, compact, labellum broad dark green to black twisted at the prominently protruding tip.