Plants erect, 15-61 cm; stems leafless scapes. Leaves 2, radical, arising directly from rhizome, ascending to spreading; blade broadly elliptic to oblong-, ovate-, or obovate-elliptic, 9-30 × 2.5-15 cm. Flowers solitary; sepals reddish brown to green; dorsal sepal lanceolate to lance-ovate or elliptic, 19-52 × 5-22 mm; lateral sepals connate, synsepal 17-49 × 6-25 mm; petals deflexed to somewhat spreading, somewhat spirally twisted, same color as sepals, linear- to ovate-lanceolate, 24-60 × 4-17 mm; lip magenta to white, obovoid to oblance-ovoid, 30-67 mm, orifice a longitudinal fissure, length of lip; staminode quadrangular to suborbicular-rhomboid or ovoid-deltoid. 2n = 20. Flowering Apr--Jul. Dry to wet forests, bogs, brushy barrens, heath, and roadsides on highly acidic soil; mostly 0--1200 m; Alta., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.