Plant: with broad, thick, ribbed, very long, often reddish leaves which lie along the ground. Flowers in long open or dense and pyramidal spikes.

Flowers: usually white, tinged bluish, sometimes pink. Column white with a dark (rarely yellow) top. Top rounded, margin yellow scarcely notched, inrolled. Column arms with short, dense, tangled, white, sometimes creamy (cotton ball) cilia.

Flowering: October to December.

Habitat: lowland to alpine clays, in forest, scrub, grassland, sunny banks and tracksides.

Conservation: widespread, very common, often abundant; not threatened.

Notes: considerable variation suggests several taxa. Some are more like T. pauciflora with arched leaves, except the flowers are white. Intermediate forms suggest hybridisation. Flowers may depend on fine hot conditions all may open. Some are scented. Three forms have been tagged T. “Whakapapa” and T. “Mangawhai”, T. "fusca".

Key features: column top rounded black with a then usually yellow tipped rounded margin; leaves strongly ribbed, broad, lax.