Flowering plant usually 20–30 cm tall, slender to moderately stout. Leaves 1 or 2, linear, channelled, 10–25 cm long. Flowers 1–5, erect, white to pale mauve, often with darker lilac spots and suffusions; pedicel (excluding ovary) 2–5 cm long, mostly enclosed within bract; dorsal sepal erect, broadly ovate, 10–15 mm long; lateral sepals deflexed, usually parallel, narrow-linear, greatly exceeding petals, 40–50 mm long; petals obliquely erect or recurved, ovate to elliptic, tapering to base, 10–15 mm long. Labellum 3-lobed from base, 10–13 mm long; lateral lobes erect, about half as long as mid-lobe, oblong, margins entire; mid-lobe keeled, long-clawed, broadly fan-shaped, margins irregular, with 2 longitudinal yellow ridges from the base ending in tooth-like processes around midway along lamina. Column narrowly winged. Flowers Oct.-Nov.
Similar to Diuris dendrobioides, but has generally shorter scapes, slightly shorter lateral sepals and flowers earlier.
Grows with Diuris punctata and some plants can be difficult to determine to either species, possibly due to the presence of hybrids.