Epiphyte, 20-50 cm tall; stems reedlike, few-leaved. Leaves narrowly elliptic, 5-19 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, plicate; leaf sheaths glabrous, not verrucose. Flowers 2 or 3 from axil of terminal leaf; sepals and petals +/- equal, 2-2.5 cm long, 4-5 mm wide, white to pale yellow; lip as long as petals, darker yellow, 1-1.5 cm wide, trilobate, the longitudinal lamellae several, becoming lacerated at apex and branching into 2 groups at base; column about 8 mm long. Fruits slender, 4-7 cm long, ca 4 mm wide, closely ribbed, the stout ribs forming a cagelike structure persisting long after seeds are dispersed. Croat 6788, 8253,12639. Occasional, in the forest; common on tree stumps at the edge of the lake and often forming the dominant element of the tree-stump vegetation. Flowers chiefly from October to December. The fruits attain full size by February and March and probably dehisce in the late dry season. Known only from Panama, from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone and Panama.