Epiphyte, 75-100 cm tall; stem reedlike, terete, unbranched, glabrous. Leaves spaced along stem mostly above the middle, elliptic to oblanceolate-elliptic, acute to very abruptly acuminate and downturned at apex, obtuse at base, 7-21 cm long, 2.5-7.5 cm wide, glabrous and smooth, plicate, the sheath often somewhat flattened. Flowers solitary at apex of stem, creamy yellow with a lemon-yellow throat, arising from between a reduced leaf and a much smaller, leaflike bract; sepals 5.5-7.5 cm long, 8-16 mm broad, ligulate to ellptic or elliptic-lanceolate, acute, the laterals +/- oblique; petals 5.5-6.5 cm long, 0.8-1.4 cm wide, ligulate to oblong-ligulate, obtuse or acute; lip obovate, retuse, 5.5-7 cm long, 2.5-4.7 cm wide, lacerate-dentate at apex, obscurely bilamellate at base; column 2-3 cm long. Fruits to 12 cm long and 7 mm wide, closely ribbed, light brown. Croat 6259. Known only from Panama, principally from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Bocas del Toro (probably also in Darién); known also from premontane wet forest in Panama (Cerro Campana). [Editor's note: It has since been found elsewhere -- see map]