Flowering stem erect, straight to flexuose at leaf and bract insertions, 10–40 cm tall, 0.5–2 mm diam., green or pink to reddish. Leaf linear-lanceolate to filiform, 10–20 cm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, channelled or conduplicate, green or sometimes purplish. Inflorescence 1–5-flowered. Sterile bracts 2. Perianth segments ovate, 6–14 mm long, salmon-pink or other pink hues; sepals distinctly mucronate. Column ovoid, 4–6 mm long, sides cream-pink or mauve, with black, red or orange band below the crest; mid-lobe c. 1.6 mm long, yellow, fleshy, arched over basal part of anther, resembling hood-like crest, densely and irregularly toothed, often bluntly notched in middle; lateral lobes oblique, 0.7–1.2 mm long, about as wide as long, flattish, quadrangular, margins toothed or with fingerlike papillae, surface otherwise variously papillate. Anther with blunt point reaching just below lateral lobes, distinctly papillose, yellow. Flowers Aug.–Dec., mostly Oct.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, VAlp. Also SA, NSW (1 collection), ACT, Tas. Common and widespread in various habitats, from beside watercourses to scrubby woodlands, in sand, gravel and clay soils.
Flowers open on sunny, humid days, sometimes self–pollinating.
Similar to Thelymitra carnea, but the flowers are generally larger and the lateral lobes of the column are a different shape.
Putatively forms hybrids with T. antennifera, T. ixioides and members of the T. nuda/T.-pauciflora complex.
