Plant: slender, leaf strap-like, narrow, concave, stem blue green.

Flowers: 1–8, plain pale blue to mauve. Column pale purple with fine linear, yellow markings and a narrow, purple band near the bright yellow, erect rounded top. Irregular narrow slot at the top, irregularly denticulate. Column arms bent sharply inward with dense bunches of cilia merging.

Flowering: November to December.

Habitat: scrub and clay areas. Northland to Waikato.

Conservation: widespread, scattered plants, not threatened.

Notes: like T. aemula but has a broader, almost closed, tall, domed column top with obscurely toothed margins.

Key features: erect column with black rounded top meeting at a denticulate yellow slot.