Plants up to 20 cm tall, but usually shorter. Leaves 3–4, basal, rosulate, petiolate; petiole up to five cm long, narrow, canaliculate; blade up to 20 cm long and 1.7 cm wide, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acute, soft, densely villose. Peduncle delicate, villose, 2–3-sheathed, terminated by a laxly 6–10-flowered raceme. Flowers medium-sized, green, apical part of petals white, sepals pubescent-villose on both surfaces. Floral bracts five to seven mm long, lanceolate, acute, villose. Pedicel and ovary up to 27 mm long. Dorsal sepal 10–12 mm long, 2.8–4 mm wide, oblong-ovate to ligulate-oblanceolate, acute, 5-veined. Petals unguiculate; claw free part ca 2–2.5 mm long, narrow; blade six to seven mm long, 1.6–3 mm wide, obliquely oblong-ovate, rather acute at apex, 2-veined. Lateral sepals 10–13 mm long, 5.5–8 mm wide, suborbicular-elliptic, oblique, acute, free, 3-veined, veins branching. Lip 2.5–3.5 mm long and wide when spread, subsessile, obtrullate to subquadrate in general outline, cymbiform, deeply concave in the centre, subacute to subobtuse, basal thickening obscurely bilobed, abruptly decurrent on disc. Gynostemium ca 4.5 mm long, shortly stalked, ca two mm (Figs. 30–32). Ecology: Epiphytic in montane wet forest. Flowering throughout the year
Notes: Ponthieva crinita and P. villosa share a similar habit, that is, they are rather slender, delicate plants with inflorescences usually shorter or as long as leaves, which is opposite to common P. maculata. According to Garay (1978), P. villosa has acute petals with branched veins, lip is triangular-ovate, and cuneate at base. Petals of P. crinita are obtuse to obliquely rounded with unbranched veins, lip is quadrate in outline, and basally auriculate. We cannot confirm different form of petals as discriminative character separating both species, but we observed differences in lip shape. Unfortunately, we do not have access to sufficient materials of both taxa to formulate definite conclusions concerning their taxonomic status. Barringer (1986) considered P. brenesii as synonymous with P. maculata.