Has no green leaves and lives only off its mycorrhizal fungus. It can grow to 1.3m tall with 15 or more flowers opening in late November or to January in the subalpine. It is an endemic, similar to the Australian G. sesamoides and is common in Pinus radiata forest. The column is as long as the labellum and it is insect pollinated. The five tepals are united in a honey coloured tube, not to be confused with G. “long column” which has golden pimples on a brown to tawny flower. The kumara-like tuber is edible.